Don't Ever
by vietnameseboi15
Summary: Will Schuester finds Rachel's journal detailing her feelings about Glee and her plans to end her life. Can Will rush against the time in order to stop Rachel from doing so? The Epilogue is up! R
1. Don't Ever

**T-rated story. Maybe an M-rated story later, though not in this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Don't Ever**

It was the week after Sectionals. As Will Schuester was in his classroom grading homework, he smiled after remembering the Glee Club sing "Dog Days Are Over". They were so close to losing to the Dalton Warblers because of their lack of unity, but he was satisfied that they were able to pull it off in the end and tie with the Warblers. Granted, he was not happy that Kurt was at Dalton Academy now. During the performance, Will noticed that Kurt seemed to not be happy singing with the Warblers. He was so happy while he was at McKinley, where his artistic abilities roamed free. Will felt that Kurt was suppressed artistically while at Dalton and being force to sing backup, but Will didn't want to worry about that now. Will decided he will talk to Kurt in the near future, in the hopes that Kurt will change his mind and come back to New Directions. If Kurt decided to not come back, Will realized that New Directions will have even harder competition with both the Warblers and Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals. Kurt, however, was not the subject matter that was on Will's mind.

He had Emma on his mind as well. While bringing his trophy into her office and hearing her quickie marriage with Carl Howell, the good news of winning Sectionals seemed like nothing at that point. Her news broke Will's heart. Thinking of this turned Will's smile into a frown. While he leaned back to his chair, Will evaluated his relationship with Emma. He knew that Emma was a person who acted on impulse a lot and he knew that she couldn't help it. But marriage in just a weekend? Will knew that Emma almost married Coach Tanaka, but luckily, he broke off the marriage after she had chosen to go with the Glee club to Sectionals. Will had told her that even though she was dating Carl, he would respect her and still wait for her no matter what because he still loved her. Well…now she's married, Will thought. There was nothing he could do about it. This was another instant where Will's heart was broken and he wanted this to be the last time Emma would break his heart. He had decided right then and there to stop his shenanigans he pulled in order to be with Emma. At last, Will felt the pangs of being lonely, but he didn't realize he wasn't the only one who felt the same way. There was someone else who also had their heart broken after Sectionals. Someone who could relate to Will at this particular moment, but that person didn't have just thoughts of loneliness. That person had thoughts of ending her own life.

Checking his watch, Will realized that it was time for Glee rehearsal. As he walked out of his classroom and toward the choir room, Will recalled seeing strange behaviors occurring within Rachel Berry. Normally during rehearsal, she would raise a point about how she was artistically and musically superior to everyone else, but for the past few days after Sectionals, Rachel had been awfully quiet. It probably had something to do with the breakup of Rachel and Finn. It was obvious after Will noticed Rachel and Finn sitting apart and not even speaking to each other during rehearsal. Finn took it okay, Will noticed. Finn was right back to being his normal self, as if he never even had a girlfriend before. Rachel was different. Will knew that Rachel was a very fragile girl and she had to be handled with care. Even the slightest touch of heartbreak, Will knew Rachel's world would come crashing through. She needed a friend to help her during those times. The bad thing was that Rachel didn't have any actual friends she could confide in. It was something that Will felt that would push Rachel to the limits and he was right.

As Will turned into the choir room, he could see the kids having their usual conversations, but this time, he noticed Santana and Brittany making fun of Rachel. As always, their insults were hurtful. In the past, Will would often overlook these remarks because Will always viewed Rachel as a person who was able to ignore such comments, but it was different this time. Will could see it in the look in Rachel's eyes. Tears were beginning to develop as the insults grew and the class erupting in laughter. Even worse, Finn was laughing at Santana's joke about Rachel. That probably did it. Seeing Finn laugh at Rachel broke her. She quickly ran out of the room, clutching a notebook journal in her arms closely. All Will could see was the glistening of her tears as she glided past him.

Bully. That is the one thing that Will despised probably the most. He hated his kids being bullied on, but he never noticed that his kids were also part of the bullying. He hated seeing his own Glee kids bullying one of their own. Glee club was supposed to be a haven for the outsiders and a place of equality. Seeing them hurt one another like this enraged Will.

"What are you guys doing?" Will shouted to the Glee members.

"What are you talking about Mr. Schue? We were just having fun," replied Santana.

"Having fun? At the expense of another person's feelings?" Will retorted back.

"Chill, Mr. S. We were just kidding around. Rachel probably knows we're joking," Quinn said, defending Santana's actions.

"No. What you guys did crossed a line," Will responded to Quinn. His eyes glared upon all of the Glee members and he addressed to them, "I am ashamed of you guys. We were supposed to be a team, a family. And families don't hurt the feelings of others. I thought you guys would learn that by now. I've seen you guys bully Rachel all the time. You may notice her demeanor of being calm when you laugh at her, but it builds up. How would you guys like it if I bully you all the time? Quinn, would you like it if I bring up your past mistakes by being pregnant or the fact you learned nothing from being pregnant and became a grade-A bitch? Santana, would you like me to remind you of your boob job or the fact that you and Brittany are the school's sluts everyday? Finn, how would you like me to mention the fact that you're freakishly tall for a teenager or the fact that you're stupidier than 99% of the people in this school? How do you guys like it if I bring all the bad qualities about you and make fun of it? Rachel is a beautiful girl, but you bring out the parts of herself that she doesn't like about herself. Those are the parts that hurt her the most. Besides Puck, I don't think anyone cares for Rachel, do they?" No one would dare look at Will to answer his question.

Will continued, "I know Rachel is irritating sometimes, but that girl is damned talented. She may say that there is something wrong with your singing, but it is meant to help you. She doesn't say 'you suck' and that's it. She tells you what you can do to improve. Granted, she may not be the best singer of all time, but she is the most talented in our Glee club. She knows more about the music, bar Kurt of course, than any of you guys. Her critique is not even an attack on your personality or your looks or anything. It is advice to make you become a better singer. She herself even needs your advices as well. Though she may respond back negatively, she appreciates the fact that you guys care for her enough to tell her when she is doing something wrong. She strives to be the best and she strives to help you become the best, so our Glee club can work as one unit. To work as one family. Yet you guys mock her. I admit that I have done it before, but now I see it. Rachel cared deeply for each and every one of us in this room. Think back to it guys. Whenever we were down or troubled, who was the one person who cheered us up with a rousing song? Who was the person who took the time to listen to our problems and try to help in anyway she could? Rachel did that more than anyone else in this room. I hate to see you guys take Rachel for granted. Rachel is one of us, yet without a thought of any kind, she would be a friend to you, even if you treated her badly. Think about this the next time you think of making fun of Rachel. You guys can go. Glee rehearsal is canceled today."

Will watched as his kids shuffled out of the room. He could tears from the eyes of Quinn, Brittany, Mercedes, and Tina. The most surprising reaction of all was the tears coming from Santana. Finn walked up to him and thanked him as did Puck. It was a awkward moment for Glee, but Will knew that he had to do it. He had to defend Rachel this time. It was the right thing to do. As Will picked up the scraps of trash that they left in their seats, Will noticed Rachel's notebook in the doorway. It was strange that he found it there. Perhaps she dropped it on the way out? He didn't want to be nosy, but he was wondering if this was a journal Rachel wrote in. Perhaps it would detail her feelings and emotions during this tumultuous time. Will opened the notebook. He flipped through the journal, settling in on the last page. It was her last entry.

December 11, 2010

To the reader:

By now, you have probably found this notebook that I had intentionally left behind during rehearsal. Hopefully this is not the janitor reading, but if it is, please do not read any further and give this journal to any Glee club members. If you don't know any, please place this in the office of Mr. Will Schuester.

So where do I begin? I guess by the time you read this entry, I will already have departed from this world. Yes, this is Rachel Berry's goodbye letter. I know that I've been dreaming to be a huge Broadway star, but now that I realize it, being a Broadway star meant nothing to me if I'm not loved. Sure, my dads will be heartbroken, but they will probably be the only ones. Everyday, I feel as if I'm pushed to the edge. I contemplated ending my life before, but Glee club and Finn brought back to the real world. It gave me a hope, something to live for. You may notice my smile and my bright persona that I put on everyday, but sometimes, I believe you guys never realize that I am really hurting on the inside. I realize that being a star was only a byproduct of what I wanted. What I really wanted was to know that I was loved by other people and know that people care for me. I love each and every one of you, but it seems like you guys don't even care about me. You're always making fun of me, calling me names everyday. The fact that Finn, out of all the people I would least expect to, was joining in on the fun just made me realize that I am right about my decision.

You know the funny thing is I always imagined about my own funeral. What people will be there, what their facial expressions will be like…I've always thought that everyone would regret being cruel to me with Finn crying over my grave. But the truth of the matter is I honestly don't care now if anyone of you show up at my funeral. I'm not looking forward to it. When I die, at least I know I'm going to be among the stars. That's all I am looking forward to now, but before I go, I just have a few words for my fellow Gleemates.

Santana: Your insults hurt me the most, but I know that you are just like me. You're finding a place to belong. You don't want to be labeled the school's mattress. That's why you wanted a steady boyfriend and you tried to achieve that with Finn. Well, now that I'm gone, you could probably do that. I hope you'll find a guy one day (or a girl who knows). Whoever he or she may be, I hope they bring you happiness one day. But I want you to know, I do forgive you.

Quinn: I remember when we were friends in elementary school. We used to be the best of friends before high school entered our lives. Then you became a Cheerio and everything fell apart. When you were pregnant with Beth, I took the time to comfort you, especially after Coach Sylvester kicked you off the Cheerio squad. I helped you rebounded, and during that time, we rekindled our friendship and bonded together once again. Yet, I feel that this year, you've gone back to your old ways of being a Cheerio. I thought being kicked off the squad would show you some humanity, but it was only temporary. I hope you find it in your heart to be that girl who I once knew that showed her concern towards her fellow Glee members. If she'll come back, maybe I can die peacefully.

Puck: I didn't mean to cheat on Finn with you. I realized it was my dumb idea to begin with and I love the fact how much of a gentlemen you've become and you refused to take advantage of me during that moment. I am impressed. From one Jew to another Jew, I hope you find that girl, the one girl who will change your life forever, the one who will stop you from being such a ladykiller to all the girls in this school. At least, you know how to value a woman's heart now. I genuinely believe you have changed ever since you joined Glee club and I am glad to see that change.

Kurt: Can I say that you are such a diva? You and I both know that this universe, let alone this high school, cannot hold back the amount of star power we have. I have seen you grown from an insecure guy who was unsure of who he was to an eccentric, dazzling guy who expressed whatever he felt was on his mind. I have loved this great change within in you Kurt and I was very saddened to hear you leave McKinley High. I hope you'll come back. After I'm gone, the Glee club needs someone to replace my star power. And the only person who I find can do that is you.

To everyone else, I don't have enough time to write. Only for two people who I believe should hear what I have to say next. So if I forget any of you, it doesn't mean I don't love you. It means I don't have enough time. I love you all though. So, for the last two people.

Finn: I love you. And I want you to know what I did, I did for love. I was stupid when I decided to get back at you with Puck. It was stupid and I hope you forgive me for this. I was devastated when you broke up with me, but I realize it was my fault for cheating on you. I have to admit you did change me a lot. I wanted to become a better person after being with you. Hopefully you didn't view my divaness as not being a change in my life, but I assure you, Rachel Berry took a 180 degree turn. I've learned to care for others ever since you and I became an item. It took so long for us to be together and I thought we would last for a very long time, but we didn't. I think it was for the best though. I realize now this isn't what I want for you. I know there is some girl out there who is perfect for you. That girl isn't me, however. This girl will like you for who you are, just like me. She will love you no matter what you do. I'm sorry I can't be there for you, but from the bottom of my heart, I want to tell you how much I care about you. This is all I can say to you. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me for what I've done.

Mr. Schue: You may be wondering why I saved you for last. Well, to tell you the truth. I guess it was because of the speech you made about me in class. I was outside, listening to everything you said about me and I thank you for that. To begin, I want to tell you that you're actually the only one who tried to bring out the best in me. I can hardly understand how you can tolerate me, though I suspect the time when you told me you had enough of my attitude, you only said that because of what you've been going through. I know you long enough to know that you wish to be with Miss Pilsbury (or rather Mrs. Pilsbury-Howell). I know she used to be your girlfriend and ever since she dated the dentist, you've been trying your best to win her back. She got married; now what are you going to do? Do you just leave your life in shambles? It's time, Will, to leave this behind you. You are our director. I don't want to see you in this place of heartache anymore. When you are down, this causes our Glee club to go along with you. You reflect us. We mimic you. So as a last wish, I want you to leave the thought of being with Emma behind and become our Glee director again. I want you to know that there are other women out there for you. I don't want the last thing to feel before I leave is my concern for your well-being. I want you to perk up and go find that woman of your dreams. She exists, trust me on this Will. Quit chasing after one girl who is always in an on/off relationship. That way, our Glee club won't suffer. You know, if there is any solace to be found in this bleak and depressing note, I don't regret being in Glee club. I don't regret knowing you Will because in some ways, our love lives are sort of the same. If anything could make me regret ending my life, it would be you. I want you to know that I love you Will. Before I die, I want you to know that. This is not your innocent little high school crush. I've loved you the moment I knew of your dedication to the Glee club. I fell in love with the man who pushed his students to be the best they can be. I want that man to come back. I want him to forget about his past romances. I know you don't feel the same way about me, but I don't regret this at all. Thanks for setting me free!

Mr. Schue, Finn, Quinn, Puck, Santana, Artie, Tina, Mercedes, Kurt, Brittany, Mike, Sam, and everyone else who have known me: I love you all.

Rachel Berry

PS: DO WELL AT NATIONALS! MAKE ME PROUD!

Clutching the suicide note of Rachel's, Will rushed out of the Glee choir room, forgetting about his personal belongings or even locking the door. Will didn't care as the teardrops poured from his eyes. The important thing was to find Rachel before she killed herself. Rachel doesn't realize the impact she had on the lives of others. God, the Glee club was beginning to regret making fun of her. If she killed herself now, the whole club will be devastated and they'll never be able to live with themselves. He had to find her before it was too late.

**Thanks for reading my second story. For some reason, I always find good ideas with Will and Rachel. This will continue, but it won't be as long as my other story "Known Unknowns". Please check that out as well and comments guys! Much love. **


	2. Against Time

**Thank you guys for reading this story! I am very excited about the number of readers I got for it. I didn't think it was going to be that good, but I like writing for you guys. Hope you guys enjoy the new installment. **

**Against Time**

"Look, I feel terrible right now. Do you think I should apologize to her?"

Quinn and Sam were standing right in front of Quinn's locker. Sam, Quinn's boyfriend, was trying to comfort his girlfriend, holding her in his embrace. Quinn's eyes were bright red, especially after what Mr. Schuester had just told them during Glee rehearsal. When Mr. Schue was talking to the students about the cruelty they did towards Rachel even though Rachel showed compassion to those who were cruel to her, it hit Quinn like a brick wall. Quinn could not stop the tears from flowing. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Quinn was an outcast, not even a year ago. When she was kicked off the Cheerios, she lost her sense of direction. Cheerleading was the only thing holding her life together and it gave her a sense of purpose in life. Because of this, Quinn regretted her one night stand with Puck and giving up her body for a child that wasn't even planned. It was a mistake, not uncommon among any teenagers.

During that time, Quinn found solace only in Glee club, a place where she felt like she belonged even though the pregnancy made her the laughingstock in school. Most importantly, she found comfort from Rachel Berry. Because neither Puck nor Finn would listen to her problems, Rachel was the only one during that time who talked to her and helped her get through her sorrows. Needless to say, after the fiasco, Quinn picked herself back up and was determined to make everything right again. The top of that list was to be even nicer to Rachel. That changed, however, when Sue reinstated Quinn and made her the head cheerleader again. The reputation and her pride got in the way of what Quinn had intended and she, Santana, Brittany, among other people, continued to berate Rachel on a daily basis. That is why when Mr. Schuester spoke those words, Quinn felt his words stabbing her. It felt like needles were prodding her heart with each word. It hurt so much that she could not hold back her tears. She was hoping to apologize to Rachel, but she never realized it could almost be too late.

As Sam was comforting Quinn, Quinn turned her head to look down the hallway and she saw Mr. Schue running, clutching a girly notebook in his arms. His eyes were filled with tears, much to the surprise of Quinn. Quinn broke from Sam's embrace and stopped Mr. Schue.

"Mr. Schue," she said, "What's happening?"

"It's Rachel, Quinn. Have you seen her?" Will replied, frantically. Quinn's heart suddenly sank when she heard Will say that.

"No, Mr. Schue. What's going on? Has something happened to her?" Quinn could not hide her concern in that statement. So much guilt and regret were filling her thoughts at that moment if something did happen to her.

"I don't know, Quinn, but we need to find her. And fast. Can you grab the other guys and have them search for Rachel in this school?"

"Wait, Mr. Schue. What's going on? What aren't you telling me?"

Will sighed and looked at Quinn. There was a hesitant look in his eyes. He opened the girly notebook that Quinn noticed earlier. He tore out some pieces of paper and handed it to her. Will, however, did not tear out the page concerning himself, which he felt was too personal.

"Read it yourself. And then help me look for Rachel. Tell the others as well. If you find her, contact me as soon as possible," Will informed Quinn. Will ran away towards the front of the building. With trembling hands, Quinn held the suicide note that Rachel wrote. She read through it quickly as possible, but then she stopped when she saw her name. Gasping, she placed her hands on her mouth. She could not hide the regretful tears that were following as she read what Rachel wrote about her. She read the lines Rachel wrote many times over. "I can die peacefully." Quinn sank to the ground when she read that. Shock overcame Quinn. Rachel was planning to kill herself because of the constant insults that came from the Glee club themselves.

"Quinn, what's wrong?" Sam asked as he sat on the floor next to her.

Quinn looked into Sam's eyes with no more tears. There was only urgency left for her. The traces of sadness disappeared. She replied to Sam, "Get the guys together. Find Rachel as soon as possible." With that, Quinn got up, leaving her book bag and Rachel's note behind and running furiously to the front of the building. Sam, with a confused look on his face, did not understand why Quinn told him to do that. Then he looked down and saw Rachel's note. He read through it quickly and finally he understood. He grabbed Rachel's note and Quinn's bag and quickly ran towards the gym to find the guys.

"That was terrible! I want 10 laps and I want them now!"

The coarse sounds of Coach Beiste's voice echoed through the football field. It was December and nearing the holiday breaks, yet Coach Beiste was still pushing them to train harder for the local championship match they will play in a month. Plus, it was cold in Lima, Ohio. All the football players were wearing their uniform with nothing underneath to shield them from that cold afternoon. With Beiste's command, all the football players (minus Artie) took off their football helmets and started to run. As Finn ran around the track, he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride for guiding his team to their first championship match. He was the star quarterback, after all. It did pain him to run 10 laps around the track though. In the midst of his thinking, he saw Sam approaching the football field and walking towards Beiste. Finn suddenly frowned. Maybe Sam was thinking about asking for his position as quarterback back, Finn thought. Finn stopped running and slowly approached Beiste and Sam from behind. Sam had a concerned look on his face as he ran from Beiste to Finn.

"Hey, what's going on?" Finn called out to Sam.

"We have a serious problem, Finn," Sam replied. Finn noticed that Sam held some kind of paper in his hand.

"What was this about?" Finn thought to himself.

"What's wrong?" Finn asked.

"It's Rachel," Sam answered, handing the sheets of paper to Finn, "Read it and you'll understand everything." As Finn read Rachel's note, his hands immediately trembled. Rachel's note got heavier and heavier with each word Finn read. Finn crumpled the note a bit and looked off into the distance.

"This is bad, Sam. We have to find her," Finn managed to say, "Go get the guys and search this school. I'm going into town to find her."

"All right," Sam replied, quickly. Before Sam could run and tell the other guys, Finn grabbed Sam by the shoulders and spun him around.

Finn said, "She HAS to be found. She MUST be found. You do not stop until you guys find her. When you do find her, you call me. Do you understand me?" Sam could hear Finn's voice break as he said that. Sam nodded and ran to find the other guys. Finn ran into the locker room and grabbed his keys and his jacket. He didn't bother bundling up. Finding Rachel was his priority now.

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Will entrusted his Glee kids to find Rachel within the school, but he doubted that Rachel was still in there. Still, it didn't hurt to check. After Will informed Quinn of Rachel's intention, he quickly ran out of the building and into his car. He didn't know whether he was too late or too early, but the fact of the matter is he needed to find Rachel, no matter what had already happened.

"Think, Will. Where would I go if I was planning on killing myself?" The thought of this made Will even more depressed. He didn't even want to contemplate suicide, but he wasn't expecting Rachel, out of all the people, to contemplate the idea either. Rachel was a strong girl, but Will knew she was fragile. Suddenly an idea came into his mind. Rachel never took the bus home. Finn would usually drive her after school because of all the activities Rachel were actively in. This means that she didn't have a car, which means she couldn't have gone far at all.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Will thought. Rachel ran out of the Glee room at 2:45. She slipped back to give Will the notebook after Will dismissed the class at 3. Will checked his watch. It was only 3:14. She couldn't have gone far, Will kept repeating to himself. He started his engine and started to drive around the town, not knowing where to even start. While driving, he began to reflect over the feelings Rachel had for him. To his surprise, he contemplated the feelings he had for her as well.

As Finn ran out to his car, all his frantic mind could think was Rachel. So much guilt and so much regret…so many things he should've told her. He should've forgiven her when he had the chance last week. If he did, all of this wouldn't happened. As he approached his car, he noticed Quinn in her car, trying to start it. Her car kept making a guttural sound, which to Finn, sounded like a dead engine. Surprisingly, Finn noticed that Quinn was also as anxious as he was. Could it be she found out? Finn ran up to her car and tapped on her window.

"Quinn, what's going on?" Finn asked.

Quinn turned her head and looked at Finn. She was very frustrated. She opened her door and quickly asked, "Did you hear about R-"

"I did," Finn quickly responded. Quinn stood there and then said, "Then you know what we have to do?"

"I know, Quinn. Come on. I have a working car. Come help me find her," Finn said with a nod. Quinn followed Finn into his car and Finn started the engine. As he began to put the car into drive, the both of them were thinking if they would ever get the opportunity to apologize to Rachel again.

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"What up, Pucky?" Santana asked Puck. She noticed him, Mike, Sam, and Artie were shuffling down the hallway of the high school pretty quickly. Puck certainly had a disheveled look on his face as did the other boys. Puck ignored Santana's question. Santana got angry as the four of them went past her.

"What is going on? You guys act like somebody died or something" Santana shouted. All four of them stopped and they were glaring at Santana. Sam threw some pieces of paper in her face and the four of them walked away.

"Oh, no they didn't. What is this?" Santana thought as she opened the paper. It was a girly handwriting and it was definitely that loser Berry's handwriting, Santana thought. As soon as Santana began reading the note, she immediately regretted calling Berry a loser. In fact, Santana regretted calling Rachel any names at all. She tucked the paper into her pockets and fell against the locker. Santana just sat there, letting the tears fall from her eyes.

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HONK! HONK!

A green sedan almost ran over a girl crossing the street. The driver of the car didn't know the girl nor would he remember her face even if he read the news the next day about a suicidal girl. As Rachel Berry crossed the busy intersection, she had hoped that the car ran over her. At least she wouldn't feel so much pain anymore. Her heart was growing weary with each and every minute passing by. She just wanted everything to end.

Earlier, Santana was making fun of the size of Rachel's hands and nose. Those were the two parts of her body that she was insecure about, besides her breast. She looked onto Finn for support because he once told her that she was beautiful just the way she was, but Finn's laughter along with the other Glee kids broke Rachel's heart again. Rachel felt as if she could never go through anything without getting her heart broken. Rachel decided right then and there to end her life. She ran to the bathroom to finish her suicide letter. It was a tearful goodbye, but she found the hardest people to write to was Finn and Will. Finn was obvious; he was her ex-boyfriend, but she didn't know why Will was the hardest to write. She knew that the crush she had on Will never really ended. Her crush soon developed into her love and admiration for Will. The reason was because Will put in so much effort for the Glee club, sacrificing so much for his students. He made her realize there was more to life than just being liked and popular. So, she harbored her feelings for him for all this time. It wasn't until she was planning on ending her life did she finally admit to her feelings for Will in the note. She knew that in the past, Will acknowledged that the two of them would strictly be teacher and student. That was the only relationship they would have, but lately, Rachel noticed a change in Will. Even though he yelled at her the week before of being a stuck-up, she knew that Will was right. She had an attitude problem and it showed up greatly last week. It even threatened to tear the Glee club apart. Before that, however, Will acted kind to Rachel. She recalled one instance though where she felt that Will might also had feelings for her.

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It was several weeks ago. Rachel had gone into Will's apartment while he was sick to bring him news of the new substitute Holly Holiday and how she was charming almost everyone in Glee club.

"I was doing a fine job of running Glee in your absence, and then Kurt, jealous, asked her to take over," Rachel exclaimed, removing her white surgical mask.

Will, reaching for another tissue, replied, "I'm not too worried about it Rachel." He blew his nose into the tissue. Rachel quickly placed her mask to cover her nose and mouth.

Will paused for a second and then continued, "I really appreciate your concern but…" Will did not notice Rachel looking down at her hands after saying that. The rest of what Will said afterwards became a murmur. Even when he's sick, Will still managed to express gratitude towards Rachel. Rachel was concerned about Will. She felt that Will had been losing his way ever since Emma and he broke up. She wanted him to bring back the charisma that she fell in love with. In the conversation, it wasn't until Will said that the kids love him that Rachel interjected.

"But Sue doesn't". Rachel got up and put on her jacket. "You have to get well, Mr. Schuester because everyday you're here, she's there and it becomes even more and more likely that she's going to start running the Glee club and you're going to become the substitute". Rachel placed on her face mask and began to walk out. Will didn't notice it, but the substitute problem wasn't the thing that was on his mind as Rachel reached the door.

"Rachel, hold on," Will called out. Rachel turned her head and looked at Will. Even though the sickness drained him of his energy, he got up and walked towards Rachel.

"I never told you thanks for visiting me. You're the first one besides my ex-wife who has done so. I appreciate your concern Rachel. I really do," Will said as he was standing in front of her. He placed his hand on her cheeks to remove her mask. As he did so, she gasped.

"It's not that contagious, Rachel," he continued. Rachel stood there, looking at Will. She chucked and said, "No, I wasn't worried. It was just a precaution. I'm glad to see that you're doing all right though, Mr. Schue."

"You are?" Will asked back.

Will gazed into her deep brown eyes and she gazed into his. They just drank into each other's eyes for the couple seconds where they felt a strange, yet familiar emotion as both of their hearts beat together as one with increasing beats each passing moment. Rachel, however, was the first to break the concentration.

"Um, I have to go," Rachel started, "Get better Mr. Schuester. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. I mean, all of us wouldn't want that." Rachel blushed immediately and turned around to walk out. Will continued to look at her retreating figure. He closed the door as soon as her figure disappeared.

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It was a strange feeling that Rachel felt that day. It was something that made her think that Will actually might feel something for her, but it could've been her imagination. As Rachel walked towards her destination, she thought back to her relationship with Finn. Rachel found her safety in Finn. Finn was the next best alternative to Will because Finn was a strong leader, but his loyalty was questionable. Rachel would often see Finn eye other girls in the school or anywhere they went. It caused Rachel to wonder sometimes, but he was the only one (besides Puck) whom she could have a meaningful relationship with.

When Rachel contemplated ending her life, she also had to think about what means to do so. She was scared of pain, though she might not admit it. So any thoughts of jumping off a bridge or ramming her head into a wall would be out of the question. She wanted it to end as painlessly as possible. That is why she chose to overdose on sleeping pills. She would just drift away and she wouldn't feel any pain. Her fathers were out of town, celebrating their anniversary, so Rachel had the home to herself. Though it was a far walk from the school, Rachel found her way to the supermarket to buy the over the counter sleeping pills. It was probably the best way to die. She wondered why other people decided to use weapons or throw themselves off something in order to do so. Why couldn't they end it peacefully? She thought the simplest way was the best. Before she could enter the market, she did not notice a familiar car in the background, stopping behind her. A figure rushed out of the car, grabbed a hold of her, and shouted, "Rachel Berry, what the hell are you thinking?"

End

**Dun Dun Dun! I love cliffhangers. It might be awhile before the next one comes up. I have finals coming up. But thanks for reading. Please provide me with any suggestions and comment guys! I love reading them. Thanks for reading again! **


	3. Rekindled

**Hey guys. Thank you for your patience. My finals went by great and I thought I would treat you guys to a new chapter of my story. Don't be disappointed though. This chapter is not Rachel-centric. It will be a Finn/Quinn (Fuinn, Quinn, or whatever you shippers want to call it) chapter. I will get to Rachel, don't you worry about that, but I wanted this story to explore other relationships beside my main one. Enjoy! **

**Rekindled **

It was starting to rain really hard, Finn noted in his mind. His concern was not for the rain that was on the verge of blinding his driving vision and probably causing a major car accident, though it should be. His concern at that moment was on Rachel. He didn't analyze the situation and acted on an impulse earlier. Seeing Quinn trying to start her car, he guessed she had probably heard about Rachel as well. Because of this, Finn walked over to her and invited her to tag along with him. He knew Quinn was determined, like him, to find Rachel. The problem was that both of them did not know where Rachel could be at the moment. Another problem was there were still some sense of tension between the both of them, but that wasn't a concern for Finn at the moment.

Both Finn and Quinn scoured where they would imagine Rachel to be. They had tried her house and went inside (Finn knew that Rachel hid a key in the flowerpot hanging in front of her house), but she wasn't there. For the last half an hour, Finn and Quinn were driving in circles without any idea where Rachel could be. Puck called earlier and informed Finn that they had searched the whole school, but Rachel was not to be found there. With the rain coming down harder and harder and Finn's windshield wiper not doing much to help his vision of the road, Finn pulled to the side.

"I don't know what to do now, Quinn," Finn said, gazing into the showers of water pounding on his windshield. There was a tone of distraught and sadness in his voice. Finn suddenly could not hold back his tears. He grasped his steering wheel and started banging it in frustration. He didn't even know whether or not Rachel was still alive. This uncertainty caused Finn to cry even harder. Though he didn't want Quinn to see tears from his eyes, he certainly wanted someone to tell him that everything was going to be all right.

Quinn gazed outside her window, her eyes finding an excuse not to find Finn's. The best she could give him at the moment was silence. Hopefully the silence will give Finn the time to recover, but it was to no avail. Finn did not put the car into drive. Finally, Quinn decided to look at Finn. Quinn sighed. They did have a relationship. Though Finn didn't take the time to know Quinn personally, but Quinn knew exactly what Finn was like. He was very stubborn, even to the point where his pride can overshadow every aspect of his life, but Finn was also a sensitive guy. And right now, Finn needed someone to comfort him.

Quinn turned around and faced Finn. She let one of her hands grab Finn's right arm and the other hand slide to Finn's cheek. She pulled his face towards her. Even though Finn could barely see her because of his swollen eyes, he could still recognize Quinn's piercing eyes.

"Finn, you can't get distracted. We're gonna find Rachel. We just have to keep going, no matter what," Quinn whispered to Finn. Finn always knew that Quinn had a soft voice whenever she spoke, but behind that voice came a strong and authoritative tone. It gave him a sense of hope. Finn nodded and quickly wiped his eyes from his tears. The weather had not gotten any better and the rain was still pouring down hard, but Finn was determined. He put the car into drive and gently accelerated his car in the tempestuous weather. Once again, both Quinn and Finn sat in contemplative silence. They didn't know where they were going, but at least this time, Finn didn't have his uncertainty clouding his every thought.

"Thanks, Q," he told Quinn.

Quinn, while Finn was driving, was analyzing her relationship with Finn. She still had feelings for Finn. It was bad enough that earlier in the year, Rachel had asked Quinn to test Finn's love for her and although Finn told her he wasn't interested, Quinn kept thinking to what Finn said. He said that he still had feelings for her, but he was with Rachel now. Earlier, Quinn thought Finn would never forgive her for finding out about her and Puck, but something did change. It happened during the summer after school had ended. As Quinn looked back at Finn, her memories of that summer came back.

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It was one of the hottest days of summer. Lima, Ohio was treated to a day where no one could bear to be outside. It wasn't strange though. It was typical Ohioan weather. Thank God for air conditioning, Quinn thought. She had contemplated earlier to go swimming and not just swimming for fun. After all, she needed to lose more of the baby weight. Ever since she gave birth to Beth, she would spend her morning, afternoon, and night, exercising constantly in order to become thin again.

Quinn Fabray was in her bedroom, throwing the last bit of her maternity clothes into a trash bag. She tied it up and sighed with a satisfaction. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. At least, my figure is coming back, Quinn thought to herself. She grabbed the trash bag and hauled it up to the attic. As her head poked through the attic barrier, her face automatically frowned in disgust. It was so god-awfully hot in the attic. She was afraid if she stayed there any longer, she would suffocate to death. Quinn quickly threw the trash bag of her clothes into a corner. With one last look, she left the attic.

Quinn went back into her room to lie on her bed. She wasn't particularly tired, even though it was 8 in the morning. She was used to getting up early during the school year and she was willing to waste her summers sleeping in when she had some many things to do. Having the baby really wore her out. Quinn was excited that at least the baby did not control her life now. She decided to go for an early swim at the local neighborhood pool. As she ran through her array of swimsuits, she finally decided on the yellow bikini. Normally, she wouldn't be caught wearing a two piece while swimming, but she knew that ever since Swim Ohio opened, not many kids would swim at the local pool. Swim Ohio was decked with over 10 swimming pools and could hold nearly 1000 people there. Also, it was the hangout joint of the summer for the high school teenagers. Quinn didn't want to go to that; she preferred peace and quiet while she was swimming. Might as well be comfortable, Quinn told herself. Quinn slipped into her bathing suit and covered it with a t-shirt and some shorts. She had to remind herself to remember to bring sunscreen and sunglasses because Ohioan summer was really treacherous. Quinn placed everything into her bag and she stepped outside.

The heat wave hit her like a train hitting her in the face and she felt a little faint. Jeez, it was only morning and it was this hot, Quinn thought. Taking a sip from her water bottle, she proceeded to walk to the pool. It was only a short walk away about 4 or 5 minutes. She could see the pool up ahead, but to her surprise, there was a person in there. It was strange. As she opened the gate to walk into the pool, she discovered that it was Finn Hudson and Finn didn't notice Quinn walking in. Quinn observed that Finn had two arms onto pool's ledge and his legs were kicking awkwardly. He had a strange breathing in, breathing out routine he was practicing. Quinn knew exactly what Finn was doing.

"Oh my God! Finn, you don't know how to swim?" Quinn cried out with a giggle. Finn immediately jumped and he turned around. When he saw who it was, his face turned bright red.

"Oh, hey Quinn," Finn stammered out. Finn looked down into the water, not wanting Quinn to see his face.

"Give me a second. I'll be right down," Quinn said. She set down her bag on one of the chairs. She proceeded to slip off her thin t-shirt, revealing her sleek upper body. Finn was eyeing Quinn as she was removing her two layers of clothing. Finn couldn't believe how her body was able to looking great after giving birth to a baby. It looked like she never even gave birth at all. When Quinn slipped out of her shorts, Finn gulped and found himself staring at Quinn, but he quickly shook his head.

"You're with Rachel now. Stop looking at Quinn," Finn told himself, quietly.

Quinn must've had acute hearing because she then said, "Yes, Finn. Close your mouth and quit staring at my butt," as she was applying sunscreen to her body.

Finn quickly responded, "Wait, I wasn't staring. I mean, it wasn't that I was. I couldn't have…I have a…" Finn's ears were becoming unbelievably red.

"Relax, Finn," Quinn replied gently. She made her way into the pool. Quinn smiled that she could still have this effect on boys, but hilariously, on Finn. The water contacted with her skin and it felt very refreshing. It was cold, but it quickly warmed up to her. She started off by doing two laps around the pool as a warm-up. She didn't want to go straight into a conversation with Finn. She knew it would distract her.

After she was finished with her warm-up, she swam straight to Finn. He was still recovering from being embarrassed by Quinn earlier and just stood there watching Quinn doing her laps.

"You're really great, you know. At swimming, I mean," Finn told her.

"Thanks, Finn," Quinn responded as she stood right next to him.

Quinn then asked," How's your summer going?"

"It's fine. How's yours?"

"It's been going great. I feel so happy and free now," Quinn replied with a sigh.

"I could imagine. What with the pregna…"Finn said before stopping in mid-sentence. He honestly didn't want to bring bad memories.

Quinn knew what Finn was about to say. She then said, "It's okay, Finn. My pregnancy. And you're right. That's the reason why I'm happy right now." Finn and Quinn stood there in silence, the both of them finding it difficult to talk or look at each other.

It was Quinn who broke the silence. She asked, "So, what are you doing here? I thought you would be with Rachel now."

Finn replied, "Oh, um. Rachel and her dads are traveling to New York this week to watch some Broadway show I wasn't particularly interested in. They're spending the next three days there for some sight-seeing as well. She just left this morning."

"Oh, why are you here? If you wanted to swim, I'd thought you would want to go to Swim Ohio."

"Nah. It's too crowded there. Plus, I wanted to practice swimming by myself. I know that this place would be pretty quiet, plus it's only 15 minutes away from my house. I didn't expect anyone to come here," Finn answered, finally having the courage to look at Quinn.

Quinn smiled and said, "Yeah. I can see that you're practicing. Did you ever learn to swim, Finn?" Finn immediately glanced back down and Quinn could see his cheeks blushing again. Quinn always found Finn to be adorkable whenever he became embarassed.

"No," Finn replied, "I really wanted to learn how to swim, so Rachel and I could finally go to Swim Ohio. She really wanted to go, but I kept making excuses. The fact is I never learned how to swim. I thought I might teach it to myself by watching Youtube videos. And I felt that I would embarrass myself in front of people and especially Rachel if I don't know how to swim once we go when she comes back. I promised her we would go."

Quinn pondered for a moment and then asked, "You said Rachel is coming home in three days, right?" Finn nodded.

Quinn continued, "I'm going to teach you how to swim in three days, so you can impress Rachel. It's the least I can do. I was a terrible girlfriend to you."

Finn laughed, but then his face became solemn. He replied in a gentle voice, "You weren't. You were just trying to protect my feelings." The two of them looked at each other, but Quinn had to look away. Quinn felt this was enough tension and awkwardness for one day.

"I think we can start tomorrow. My fingers are starting to get pruned," she said to Finn. She grabbed a towel from her bag and wrapped herself with it. Finn climbed out of the pool and grabbed a towel from his bag to wipe his face with.

Quinn began eyeing Finn's body. He was bulky in the sense that he was freakishly tall for his age, but Quinn could see those developing abs and toned biceps. She bit her lower lip gently as Finn began putting his clothes back on. Finn could feel that Quinn was eyeing him, but chose to respond back like she did. At least it wasn't a one-way viewing party. Finn walked over to Quinn.

"It's a deal," Finn said. His hand extended towards her. Quinn looked at Finn and extended her hand. His hand was like a humongous rock compared to hers. Finn latched onto her hand and shook it firmly. She had to pull her hand back because he kept holding it. Finn walked away when she did so. As Quinn watched Finn's retreating figure, she wondered if it was mistake to be spending time with Finn for the next few days.

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The days went by quicker than Quinn had imagined. In the mornings, Quinn would meet Finn at the pool and she would spend her time teaching him how to swim properly. Granted, it was extremely difficult the first day because it seemed to her that Finn had no sense of direction while he was swimming. But through true grit and determination, she actually taught Finn to swim correctly.

As noon crawled in on the last day together, Quinn felt a sense of accomplishment after seeing Finn doing laps around the pool.

"You're doing such a great job," Quinn called out to Finn, "But don't forget to lift your shoulders more and move your arms in rhythm." He had improved a great deal and she knew that he would impress Rachel when she came back from New York the next day.

"Woo!" was the first thing that Finn shouted as he got out of the pool. He dried himself quickly with a towel. He walked over to Quinn and gave her a firm hug.

Quinn was shocked at first, but she returned his hug.

"You were awesome, Finn."

"Thanks, Q. You are a great teacher. And gorgeous as well," Finn said while squeezing Quinn even harder. His compliment tugged at her heart strings.

Quinn smiled. She wanted to push Finn away, but for some reason, she couldn't find the strength in order to do so. Because Finn was taller than she was, Quinn looked up and found Finn looking down at her. Their eyes caught each other. Maybe it was because they were caught up in the moment, but the both of them pushed forward until their lips joined together. Quinn had to tip-toe in order to meet Finn's lips and Finn had to bend down to do so. Still lip-locked, they retreated onto the pool chair where Quinn laid on her back. Finn's aggressiveness made Quinn's lips quiver in excitement as Finn kissed her gently on the throat, each kiss becoming an explosion of blissful sensations. But Quinn realized that her morale had come back during that heated moment. Quinn put her arms around Finn's head and lifted it up.

"What? Was I doing something wrong?" Finn asked in confusion.

Quinn frowned and answered, "Finn, Rachel is your girlfriend now. I'm not. And I know how heartbroken you were when you found out I cheated on you with Puck. I know you won't forgive me for that, but I care for you. I don't want the same thing to happen to you anymore, especially with Rachel. I need you stop. You know I have feelings for you, but I can't do this while you're with her." Quinn allowed the teardrops to drip from her eyes. Finn swallowed in disappointment as he got up and grabbed his stuff. He couldn't bear to look Quinn in the eye. He felt ashamed because of what he was doing to his relationships. Before he left, he said one thing.

"I forgive you, Q."

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The ringing from Finn's phone jolted Quinn from her memory of the summer. Finn had to pull over because the rain clouded his windshield wipers. The phone fumbled in Finn's hand as he was trying to pick it up.

"Hello," Finn responded. There was a voice talking from the phone and after it stopped, Quinn could see Finn's face becoming relieved.

"Really? That's great. Where is she?" More chatter.

"Thanks. I'll go see her right now!" Finn hung up the phone.  
"They found her. They found Rachel," Finn told Quinn with glee. He was beginning to turn around to head back towards the destination when he noticed a road block up ahead. There were several police officers directing traffic. Finn and Quinn noticed cars up ahead turning around after a chat with one of the officers.

As Finn pulled up to one of the cops, he rolled down his window. "What seems to be the problem, officer?"

The officer responded, "There's been a major accident ahead caused by several large trees collapsing all over the road. I'm afraid the road's been blocked for tonight."

"Wait, is there any other way? There's only one road leading back to Central Lima." Finn asked, looking clearly distraught.

"'Fraid not son. The other drivers were pretty angry about this too, but we're working as hard as we can. Is there a friend's house on the skirts of Lima you can go to?"

Finn knew one person's house, but he didn't want to answer the question. Quinn looked at the officer, "Yes, he does. Thank you officer."

"Finn, you remember where my house is, right?" Quinn asked and Finn nodded. Finn honestly didn't have any choice. None of his friends lived on the skirts of Lima, where all the wealthy people lived. Though he wanted to go to Rachel at the moment, he knew there was no other way to get to her. With an exasperated sigh, he drove his car around and head towards Quinn's house.

**The next chapter will have Rachel, I promise. I will continue this chapter probably after the next. Hope you guys enjoyed reading this. And thank you for your comments. I love them all! Til next time guys. **


	4. Broken

**Sorry guys for the long update. I have been faced with laziness after my finals ended. I don't know if you guys liked the Finn/Quinn pairing I did last chapter, but I just did for the heck of it after hearing about the Superbowl spoilers. Hope you guys like this chapter. It is shorter than my previous chapters, but it is meant to be a filler. Enjoy! **

**Broken**

It was starting to rain heavily by the time Rachel Berry approached the market. She had already decided on how to end her life, but as she was making her way into the store, a heavy hand grabbed her from the shoulder and spun her around. Rachel felt her knees tremble and about to give out when she saw who it was.

"Rachel Berry, what the hell are you thinking?" Will yelled loudly to her face.

Rachel didn't know what she was feeling at the moment. It was like a state of depression, confusion, and shame. She didn't know how to respond to Will. Her mouth whimpered as she burst into tears. She stood there, longing for a human touch, something that could bring her back to reality again. When Will stepped forward to wrap his jacket around her and gave her a hug, it was at that moment that she knew what she was feeling at the moment. When she looked at Will's eyes, she felt a sense of comfort and she knew she was loved. That was the only thing found Will's firm arms.

As Will stood there holding Rachel in his arms, he felt his soul becoming even more peaceful. It was just right. He would vow to not to let anything happen to her again. Even as the water began to pour heavier from the sky, both Rachel and Will held each other in an embrace, tighter and tighter as the moments pass until Will came back to reality.

"Ahem," Will coughed. "Come on, Rachel. Let's go home," Will said as he led her to his car, his arms still wrapped around her shoulders. He opened the door to the passenger side and gently nudged her into the seat. Will then ran around to the driver's side and started up the engine. He turned the heat up. Even though the car had many faults, thank goodness the heat worked, Will thought. The both of them looked at each other, noticing the other in their water drenched clothes. Both Will and Rachel were unfortunate to wear clothes that were not prepared for the spontaneous heavy rain that day. Will's white dress shirt was soaked, revealing his toned chest. Rachel was wearing a pink blouse that didn't do much to hide the black undergarments beneath. The both of them realize their half-nakedness and quickly turned red in their face.

"I have to do something quick," Will thought.

Will looked toward the backseat and grabbed his jacket. Instead of wearing it himself to avoid more eye staring of his body, Will handed the jacket to Rachel.

"Here you go," Will said, "you don't want to catch a cold you know."

Rachel held the jacket and wrapped it around herself, using the jacket to cover her breasts.

"Thanks, Mr. Schuester," Rachel replied.

When Will started the engine, Rachel darted her head to her side of the window. She didn't want to look at Will again because she didn't want another confrontation of any kind, whether it is about her suicidal tendencies or about her feelings for Will.

As Rachel turned her head to the right, Will thought he saw a faint smile forming at the corner of her mouth. Will felt a smile forming in his own while he pulled out his phone to dial Puck's number. After a conversation with Puck telling him that Rachel was okay, he quickly dialed Finn to tell him the news. By the sound of things, Finn was very excited and informed Will that he will head straight to Rachel's house right away.

"Thank God," Will thought after he placed his phone in his pocket, "I don't think I could handle Rachel for tonight." He began to look at the sky and noticed the retreating light paving the way for dusk. Will didn't know, though, that by the end of the night, he would be the only one to be with Rachel.

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Finn knew it was a bad idea to go with Quinn to her house, but he knew he had no choice. The road leading back to central Lima was blocked off. Finn decided that he would write a stern letter to the district representative after this, but he chuckled a bit when he realized he didn't know who his representative was or anyone in the local government for that matter.

Finn thought, "Rachel would've been good for at this stuff." He suddenly frowned thinking about his former girlfriend. Sure she was safe now that Mr. Schue found her, but he wanted to make sure. He tried calling her phone several times after talking to Mr. Schue, but she wouldn't pick up. This caused him to become even more anxious.

The rain still hadn't let up. The constant onslaught of the rain made Finn's vision of the road become even worse, but luckily, Finn found Quinn's house all right. He turned into Quinn's driveway and was relieved to see Mrs. (well Ms.) Judy Fabray's, Quinn's mother, car in the driveway. At least both Quinn and Finn wouldn't be alone at the house. He wasn't planning on staying overnight either, but the storm outside reminded him that he had no way to get back home or to Rachel anytime soon. As Quinn turned to open the door of Finn's car, Finn found himself eyeing her. He didn't want to, but he couldn't deny still having feelings for her.

"No," Finn decided to himself, "You have to make things right with Rachel now. You and Quinn can never be an item anymore." Yet in the back of his mind, doubt began to sink in. He inhaled deeply as Quinn turned the door knob to her house.

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"Come on, S. It's getting late. Let's go," a male voice said as he reached his hand out to Santana's quiet figure on the ground in front of her locker. Her knees were up to her chest and her face was buried in it. The note that Rachel wrote broke her heart, even to the point where she lost all sense of time.

Santana looked up to see who it was. Though her eyes were still puffy, she could still make out a mohawk on the guy's hair. Puck.

Santana quickly buried herself again in her knees and replied with a stuffy nose, "Leave me alone, Puck." Santana felt that she should be alone at the moment. She didn't deserve any sympathy for the actions that have been committed. It wasn't even worthy of pity. Puck ignored her request and sat down beside her. With an outstretched arm, he pulled her body towards him and gave her a hug.

"Will it make you feel better to know that Rachel's been found? She's safe" Puck whispered to her. Santana suddenly perked up and looked at Puck.

"She's been found?"

Puck nodded and said, "Yep. Now let's get out of her Santana. It's getting late. Come on, I'll take you home."

Santana smiled at Puck and wiped her eyes quickly. Puck stood up and pulled her along with him. They quickly ran out to Puck's car because of the heavy rain. Puck, to Santana's surprise, opened the door for Santana to let her get in. It was strange, but it made Santana wondered a lot of things. She really needed to change. First was to stop making fun of Rachel, but more importantly, the next was to stop using Puck as her personal boy toy. Rachel made her realize that Santana was in fact looking for a stable relationship. She only used other guys to mask her true emotions, but inside, she longed for an actual boyfriend in a meaningful relationship. Now that Puck was becoming a gentleman of some sort, Santana smiled at the thought of being in a meaningful relationship (not just sexual relationship) with Puck. She couldn't stop smiling at this fact, even to the point when Puck got into his car, the first thing he noticed was her smile.

"What's going on?" Puck asked.

"Nothing," Santana answered back rather sweetly.

"Ok." Puck grinned with her as he started his car engine.

"Time to make things right," Santana thought.

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"I love this song. Don't you?" Will asked Rachel, hoping to break the awkward silence in the car. Rachel didn't reply to his question. "Smile", the Michael Jackson version of the Charlie Chaplin song, was playing on the radio. Will knew the lyrics to the song were meaningful and he hoped Rachel was listening to it. To emphasize on the point, Will couldn't help but sing along with the song.

_Smile, though your heart is aching  
Smile, even though it's breaking  
When there are clouds in the sky  
You'll get by..._

If you smile  
With your fear and sorrow  
Smile and maybe tomorrow  
You'll find that life is still worthwhile  
If you just...

Light up your face with gladness  
Hide every trace of sadness  
Although a tear may be ever so near  
That's the time you must keep on trying  
Smile, what's the use of crying  
You'll find that life is still worthwhile  
If you just...

Smile, though your heart is aching  
Smile, even though it's breaking  
When there are clouds in the sky  
You'll get by...

If you smile  
Through your fear and sorrow  
Smile and maybe tomorrow  
You'll find that life is still worthwhile  
If you just smile...

That's the time you must keep on trying  
Smile, what's the use of crying  
You'll find that life is still worthwhile  
If you just smile

To Will's surprise, Rachel bursted into tears again.

"I regret it, Mr. Schuester. So much," Rachel bawled. Will turned off the radio and continued to let Rachel mutter to herself. Will reached over and gripped her shoulder, hopefully to let her know that someone was still there for her. Rachel reciprocated and placed her hand on top of Will's hand. It was a reflex instinct that caused Will to pull his hand away quickly. Rachel let her hand dropped to her lap and looked down at her skirt to straighten it.

"Um, are your daddies at home?" Will asked in an attempt in hopes of a distraction.

Rachel shook her head and managed to mumble out, "They're on a business trip. They'll be home in two day."

"Shit," Will thought to himself. It worried him that he might have to spend the night with Rachel, but then he remembered that Finn and Quinn were on their way to Rachel's, so he breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, Will's phone vibrated. It was a text message. Will quickly read it.

**SORRY MR. S. **

**ROAD BLOCKED TO LIMA. CAN'T MAKE IT TO RACHEL. TAKE CARE OF HER TONITE PLEASE**

**-FINN**

Will hesitated and read Finn's message over and over again to make sure he was reading it right. Will started to panic. There must be someone else. Perhaps Tina, Mercedes, or even Kurt could watch Rachel tonight. To Will's horror as he was flipping through his contact list, the battery to his phone died out, leaving only a blank screen.

"Work, you stupid thing!" Will shouted as he pressed every button on his phone, hoping that it will turn on. It was useless.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Schue?" Rachel asked with concern in her tone.

"Do you have your phone with you, Rachel?" Will asked back.

Rachel thought for a moment and shook her head. She replied, "I left it in my locker." She paused.

"I didn't want anyone to contact me while I was planning to…" Rachel's face frowned again.

"It's okay Rachel. I'll just use your house phone when we get to your house."

Will had to tell himself not to panic. This was a situation he didn't want to fin himself in.

When Will turned into Rachel's driveway and stepped out of his car, he nearly had a heart attack. The big storm apparently knocked down the phone line in Rachel's neighborhood.

"This can't be happening. Why does God have a sick sense of humor?"

**Comment/Review. I enjoy reading them all. The next chapter might be the last installment for this story. I was wondering what kinda pairing would you guys like me to do next. I've done two Rachel/Will stories so far, but do you like others like Quinn/Will, Quinn with anyone, Rachel with Will again or with someone else. I gotta have a creative outlet of some sort lol. Please help on my next idea. Thanks guys. Merry Christmas! **


	5. The Photo Part I

**Sorry guys for the ridiculously long wait. I lost my train of thought for this story, but thank goodness I am back again. Thank you for your patience.**

**This new installment is much longer than my previous ones because my readers really deserve it. Thanks for the read, the comments, the story alerts, the subscribers, etc. A special thank you to BuffyAnne for taking the time to helping me with my stories and commenting on them. You are a wonderful person. Another shout out to Wistful Watcher, who's one of my favorite authors of Will/Rachel stories. Your story "Columbus" inspired a part of this chapter. If you guys would, please visit Wistful Watcher's channel and read their fics. It honestly blows mine out of the water and it is so much win in the Will/Rachel shipper department. Anyway, I'm done with my intro here. **

** Oh and another thing. I changed the previous chapter a bit. Instead of the whole power line falling down, I changed it to just the phone line. I wanted electricity to run in this house just to serve my purpose. Hope you guys have that mind. Enjoy! **

**The Photo**

**Part I**

When Will entered Rachel's house, he was a little hesitant at first. He would be in Rachel's Berry house for who knows how long and there was so much underlying tension between the both of them. Will cannot deny that, but Will shook his head in response to his uneasiness. He had an obligation to be there for his student no matter happened. It wasn't that long ago that Will rushed out of the high school in fear that Rachel had done the unthinkable. Now that she had been found safe and sound, shouldn't he be so much joyful? Shame overcame Will immediately. Rachel Berry was his priority now and he pushed whatever bad thoughts he had aside, no matter the feelings that may exist between the both of them. Besides, it was going to be strictly professional between the both of them tonight, Will thought as Rachel turned the knob to her house.

Rachel's house wasn't at all what Will had expected. He had always imagined Rachel's home being littered with Broadway posters and memorabilia, but by the look of things, it looked like a regular home. Will walked right into the living room and began to look at the photographs that were hanging on the wall. Besides the family photo of Rachel's dads and her, it was all photos of her in various stages of her life. Will chuckled when he saw a photo of Rachel holding a dance competition trophy. No doubt in the picture, Rachel was about two or three years old. It makes him think of how strange Rachel must've been growing up as child and as a teenager.

"What are you smiling at?" Rachel asked, standing right beside him.

"Your dance competition," Will answered, "Is that you?"

Rachel blushed profusely and nodded her head. "I was six in that photo."

Will laughed in surprised.

"Six?" Will exclaimed, "There is no way! No chance! You look like a baby in the picture"

He couldn't stop the smile forming on his mouth as he began laughing at Rachel. He knew it was wrong after what just happened. He thought Rachel would take it the wrong way and perhaps burst into tears again, but he was wrong.

"Stop it," Rachel laughed, punching Will lightly on the arm.

"That felt familiar," Will thought.

She had a sense of humor after all. It was a happy moment for the both of them. In that temporary moment, Rachel forgot about what she originally planned to do and Will forgot about the uneasiness he felt earlier.

But happy moments don't last forever as Will began to cough at the awkward silence that soon followed. Rachel immediately turned her body away from Will's and grabbed her bag to head into her room.

"Wait, shouldn't I follow her?" Will asked himself, "Just in case, she still feeling suicidal."

"No, Will," his own mind answered, "You have to give the girl some space. She's been through a lot."

Will began to remove his shirt. It was wet after all and he had a white sleeveless shirt underneath. He carefully laid his dress shirt on a sofa for it to dry. He sat down in the living room couch and turned on the television.

"Thank God the cable still works," Will thought. He was flipping through the channels when he caught the title of a movie that was just starting to play. He began smiling when he noticed the name of the main character of the movie. Rachel would love this, Will thought.

"Hey, Rachel!" Will called out.

There were footsteps rapidly descending down the stairs as Rachel went into the living room.

"What is it?" Rachel asked. Will turned his head to Rachel and immediately gulped. She changed out of her wet clothes and was wearing black shorts with a yellow sleeveless shirt. The shorts were extremely short, accentuating Rachel's long, silky legs and the shirt wasn't doing much to hide her womanhood.

Will shook his head to break out of his staring and pointed at the television.

"Barbra's on. _Funny Girl_. I know you like it since you sang "Don't Rain on My Parade" last Sectionals. That and your obvious obsession with Streisand," Will answered quickly.

Rachel began to smile brightly and giggle.

"Oh my goodness. This is like my favorite musical of all times! Did you know that it didn't win in any categories at the Tony Awards because of _Hello Dolly_, but I much rather listen to the voice of Barbra Streisand than Carol Channing any day. I…" Rachel suddenly paused and quickly blushed when she noticed Will chuckling.

She sighed and calmly sat right next to the empty seat beside Will on the couch. Rachel wasn't strange as Will originally thought. She was just unique. Will, however, unconsciously shifted his body away from her.

When the movie came to a commercial after the first act, Will didn't notice that Rachel was so much closer to Will with her legs pressed against her chest. Will caught himself staring at her legs several times during the movie, but quickly reprimanded himself in an instant. It was happening way too often and he tried to distract himself by focusing on the movie even more.

Will detected Rachel's desire to sing along with the musical, but for some reason, she didn't sing at all. She merely watched the movie without an urge to bust out into song.

"Rachel, I know you've seen this musical many times," Will said, "You should sing along with Fanny."

Rachel frowned and replied, "I'm sorry. It's just…I'm not in the mood to sing. Though I do love this musical with all of my heart."

Will thought, "I gotta get this girl out of it. This is Rachel Berry for goodness sakes. And she didn't even sing "Don't Rain on My Parade". That is a travesty that needs to be fixed."

As soon as Act II of the movie began, the movie started with the song "Sadie, Sadie", Will initiated his plan by singing along with the movie.

_I'm Sadie, Sadie, married lady,  
Bow when I go by.  
I'm a corporation now,  
Not me, myself and I.  
Oh how that marriage license works  
On chambermaids and hotel clerks.  
The honeymoon was such delight  
That we got married that same night._

It felt weird singing a woman's part, but Will noticed Rachel's eyes lit up. He encouraged her to sing along with him as she began to open her mouth and sing the next verse.

_I'm Sadie, Sadie, married lady,  
Still in bed at noon,  
Racking my brain deciding  
Between orange juice and prune.  
Nick says nothing is too good for me,  
And who am I not to agree?  
I'm Sadie, Sadie, married lady, that's me!_

Will stopped and glanced over at Rachel, who was singing all of Fanny's parts. She was phenomenal when she sang. Sure, she gets a little too into the music sometimes, Will noticed, but anybody with this kind of passion and emotion while singing should sing however the hell they want to. His plan was working. Will grinned broadly and Rachel seemed to notice it. She turned her head to look at Will while singing the last notes of the song.

"Now that's the Rachel Berry I know," Will mused. Will caught a glimpse of Rachel's cheeks turning red.

"Thanks, Will," Rachel whispered, placing her hand on top of Will's and inching much closer to his body.

"You're welcome," Will answered as they both turned their heads to continue watching the movie. And Will did not notice that Rachel called him by his first name nor did he move his hand from her hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"'Don't Rain on my Parade' is probably one of my favorite musical numbers now," Will informed Rachel as soon as the song's reprise ended. Rachel nodded in enthusiasm when she heard Will say that.

They managed to watch the whole movie singing along with the other songs. Rachel confided in Will that she heard her mother sing _Funny Girl _while spying on Vocal Adrenaline. That's how Rachel knew that Shelby was her mother. They were so alike in many ways, but they just couldn't find the moment to reconnect with one another. It was strange that Rachel was confiding in Will. Meeting her mother and trying to reconnect with her was probably something she's never told anyone. Will doubted that Finn would listen to the personal stories that Rachel wanted to share.

Rachel was certainly a songbird, memorizing all the lyrics to the songs of _Funny Girl_. Will always had trouble memorizing lyrics from any musical in general. Well, maybe besides _Singin' in the Rain_, but that was because it is his favorite movie of all times.

Rachel was much closer to Will at the end of the movie. During the movie, their bodies shifted around a lot and there were instances where they caught each other looking at the other. Any situation like this would cause an awkward moment and cause the two of them to move away from each other, but they still managed to be closer when the movie ended than when the movie started. In fact, Rachel's head was now leaning against Will's shoulders and he did not even notice it, but the credits roll brought him back to reality.

"Snap out of it, Will," Will thought to himself when he noticed Rachel leaning against his body, "You cannot do this to one of your students!" But luckily for Will, something happened.

Rachel's stomach started to grumble as did his.

"Thank God. An excuse!" Will thought.

"Why don't I go in the kitchen and cook something up?" Will asked as he slipped out of Rachel's head and stood up.

It was as if God answered him as a loud thunderous noise exploded nearby. It shook the house and worse, it cut off the power to the house.

"Well, there goes any plan for cooking. Besides, Will. I'm a vegan. I don't eat anything with meat. Or anything with a soul," Rachel replied as she got up from the couch and headed towards the kitchen.

"You know it's getting pretty dark. Do you have any candles in the house?" Will asked, glancing at his watch. It was 7:05.

"Sure, they're upstairs in my dads' room. They keep it in their candle cabinets. First door on the left. You can't miss it. Why don't you grab those while I fix something up for our empty stomachs? I imagine we haven't eaten since lunch time"

"Sounds great, Rachel. Um, don't hurt yourself trying to fix us some food okay. Oh, and do you have any Pepto Bismol in the house just in case?" Will laughed as he walked out of the living room.

"Hey!" Rachel giggled, "I'll have you know. I'm an awesome cook, even without using a stove."

"Ah shucks. Too bad there's no electricity for you to use it. Noodles would've been very nice!" Will shouted down the stairs.

Will made his ways upstairs into Rachel's dads' bedroom. There were a lot of movie posters in there. It looked exactly like what a teenage girl in the 90's would have in their room. Will grabbed three candles and some matches that were nearby. As he exited the room and closed the door, he noticed the lights were still on in a room that lied straight ahead of him. There was no doubt in his mind that it was Rachel's room.

Will didn't want to intrude upon her private space, but there was something that caught the attention of his eyes. As he stepped into her room, he gasped in amazement. It was indeed what he thought in the first place: A giant purple lamp.

One word: Awesome

"This is so retro," Will said to himself, touching and admiring the lamp. He began to let his eyes explore Rachel's bedroom. It looked like a normal teenage girl's room, which came as a surprise to Will. Besides the elliptical machine that was nearing the edge of the window, nothing stood out of place.

When Will began to walk out the door, he noticed Rachel's drawer cabinet in the room. It had a photo frame that was put down and beside it was a portrait of Rachel with Finn at some kind of carnival photo booth. Rachel was kissing Finn's cheek while he was in an awkward smiling pose. It made Will laugh, but it wasn't this that caught his attention.

The photo frame that was put down caught the attention of Will. He lifted the frame up to view the photograph. He smiled gently when he saw the picture. The memories started coming back as he began to reminiscence about the photo.

xxxxxxxxxx

**Last Summer **

"Seriously, I need to get out of this town," Will thought to himself. He was on a plane heading towards New York City. This was two weeks after Regionals and school ended. It was two weeks after he confessed his love to Emma. And it was also two weeks after she rejected him.

To Will, it was a time where he didn't have a care in the world. New York City was the place to be for him. It was place where he could find comfort during these stressful times. He just got out of a bad marriage and a horrible breakup. Watching a few Broadway shows should perk him a lot more before the summer ended and his life would begin again.

When he landed in New York City and checked into his hotel room, he quickly changed into his Broadway attire: a white dress shirt with a blue sports coat while wearing black dress pants and black loafers. For good measure, he wrapped a red tie for his shirt.

He quickly headed towards the first Broadway show he could see and ordered tickets for the earliest showing he could go in and watch. Will decided that in that day, he would spend his whole day in Broadway just watching musicals and he would be spontaneous about what he watched, although _Rent _was going to play that night. He wasn't going to be spontaneous about that. It was a must-see on his list.

The woman at the ticket counter didn't really inform him of the show he just spontaneously chose as she handed him the ticket, partly because Will didn't ask for what show he just paid full price for.

The usher handed Will a playbill, but Will didn't bother opening it and reading it.

"Enjoy the show," the cute female usher said, winking at Will.

"I definitely will," Will replied, winking back to the usher, but Will was about to eat his words up. He sat down right next to a woman with four shrieking children. He didn't want to be seated, but that's where his seat was. Will hoped that when the musical start, the children would start to calm down and let him enjoy the show.

"Are you ready for this?" a young boy asked Will excitedly.

"You bet I am," Will said, grinning broadly.

"Wow. Kids are starting to get into musicals. I'm in New York, ready to watch my first Broadway show in years. Finally, things are going my way," Will thought.

When the curtain raised, his jaw dropped. He quickly opened his playbill. To his horror, he discovered the name of the musical: _Shrek the Musical_.

"God," Will said in panic to himself, "I need to get out of here." Will tried to get up, but the little boy held down his jacket.

"You said you were excited for this. Why are you leaving now?" the little boy asked innocently.

"Uh, stomach ache," Will groaned as an excuse and tried to get up again, but the boy kept holding him down. Will groaned in anguish as he sat back down in the chair. He didn't want to make a scene in front of the audience. He had to watch through the first act of the musical. It was god-awfully terrible. When intermission started, he thanked the Lord for getting him out as he rushed out into the lobby to take a breather.

He slumped into the lobby bench with his hands on his face to wake himself from the dreadfulness he just witnessed. Never again with this spontaneity. Whoever thought of making a musical about Shrek should get shot in the face, Will thought. What was next? Spider-Man the musical? One thing was for sure, he would not be back for the second or third act.

Will was trying to get the songs out of his head when he heard a familiar voice in the lobby. He stood up from the bench and started walking towards the shrilly voice.

"Dad. Daddy. I'm telling you. I am not going back in there. I love all kinds of musical, but that was a horrendous excuse for a musical. I'd much be rather spending my time out in the city," a feminine voice said as Will was approaching. To his surprise, it turned out to be Rachel Berry. What a coincidence, Will thought.

"Well, sweetie. We happen to like the musical and we're staying. We would let you explore the city, but you're underage," the white man said, who Will perceived to be one of Rachel's fathers.

Rachel groaned and she spun around. Her mouth broadened into a smile when she saw Will standing there.

Will felt his eyes widened when he saw what Rachel was wearing. It was a gorgeous red dress with matching high heels. His concentration broke when Rachel screamed "Mr. Schue!" She ran and hugged him really tightly.

Her fathers chuckled and approached Will. Rachel released Will from her embrace and turned to her father to say, "Dad. Daddy. This is my Glee teacher from school, Mr. Schuester."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Schuester. I'm Leroy," the black man said, extending his hand to Will. Will gripped it and shook it with fervor.

"And I'm Hiram," the white man said, shaking Will's hand as well.

"The pleasure's all mine," Will replied, "and please. Call me Will."

"Of course," Leroy answered, "What brings you to New York, Will?"

"Not much," Will said, "I guess I just wanted to take a vacation and watch some Broadway shows. This musical was an impulsive choice for me."

"Oh," Hiram smiled, "Are you going to stay for the next act? I'm pretty sure Rachel would stay if her Glee teacher was staying. She hates the musical, but we love it."

"Sounds great, but I'm beginning to think we didn't see the same musical, Mr. and Mr. Berry. Actually, I'm about to leave. Probably going to do some sight seeing before _Rent_ comes on for tonight's showing down the street," Will answered nervously.

"Oh, that's too bad. Come on, Rachel. The second act is about to start," Leroy told Rachel. Will could see Rachel's face being disappointed but then it suddenly lit up.

"Dad. Daddy. I would like to ask you something," Rachel said sweetly.

"Go ahead, sweetie," Hiram replied.

"Do you mind if I go sight-seeing with Mr. Schue? I honestly don't want to watch the rest of this musical."

Will felt shock overcoming him at what Rachel just said. He wasn't really prepared for it as he began to smile nervously. Her fathers caught on to Will's uneasiness.

"Well. I honestly don't want to bother your teacher here. He probably wants some time for himself," Leroy said. Rachel began to frown again at her dads' disapproval.

Will knew that their answer was a "no" and it was probably for the best, but Rachel was just like him. They both disliked the musical and he didn't want to torture Rachel into another hour of that poor excuse of a musical.

"Really, Mr. Berry. I don't mind taking Rachel sight-seeing. I'll make sure she'll be back here when the musical ends," Will said.

"Well…," Leroy and Hiram said.

Rachel's face brightened again and she pleaded, "Oh, please dad, please daddy, please dad, please daddy, please, please, please, please…"

"All right, all right. All right, already. Rachel, we haven't seen you become this excited since you won your first singing competition. If you really want to, do you mind Will?" Hiram said.

"Not at all," Will responded.

Rachel immediately blushed as she leapt into the air shouting, "Yay!"

"Ok, Will. We entrust her to your care. The musical ends in about two hours. Please have her back by then," Leroy said to Will.

"You have my word. As her teacher of course," Will replied.

He had no idea why he just suggested spending time with Rachel. After all, the image of that innocent crush Rachel had was still in the back of Will's mind and their relationship had been leaning more to the left than in the center lately. He should keep his distance during their time together.

"Bye dad. Bye daddy," Rachel said as she kissed the both of them on the cheeks. Rachel and Will exited out of the building and into the busy streets of New York City.

"So where are we going?" Rachel asked excitedly, grabbing a hold of her purse.

"Well," Will breathed out. It was certainly hot in New York during the summer, removing his tie and sliding it into his pocket. He thought of nothing better to do than to get something cold to eat.

"How about some ice cream?" Will suggested.

"Ice cream, Mr. Schue?" Rachel replied, "But Mr. Schue. I'm a vegan."

"Ah, ah, ah. Not to worry, my little diva. I have a surprise for you," Will said, letting his finger tap Rachel's nose. He turned around to hail a taxi.

"Is he flirting with me?" Rachel thought to herself, "Probably just my imagination" as Rachel and Will climbed into the taxi. Rachel climbed toward the window seat. Will was about to sit next to her when he remembered to keep the distance. He sat on the other window seat.

"Lula's. On East 6th Street," Will informed the driver and the driver began to proceed toward the destination.

"Never heard of this place," Rachel said.

"I know," Will chuckled, "It's an ice cream joint. I was planning on eating it by myself while you watch me."

"Hey," Rachel said as she punched Will's arm lightly.

"Is she flirting with me?" Will asked himself in horror, "Probably just my imagination".

He cleared his throat and moved closer towards the window. Rachel noticed his nervousness and began to fix the hem of her dress. The two of them were silent for the rest of the trip, pretending to look outside the window at the sights.

When the cab pulled up to the place, Will paid the cab driver and the both of them got out of the cab.

"Lula's Sweet Apothecary? What is this place, Mr. Schue?" Rachel asked.

"I told you. It's an ice cream place. Come on in," Will informed as he opened the door, holding it open for Rachel to walk in first.

"Woah!" Rachel gasped in disbelief. It was a vegan ice cream paradise. She only heard about vegan ice cream in magazines, but she never had the opportunity to try some. She smiled brightly when her eyes ran through the menu the store had. She approached the counter, but she didn't say anything. She was still shocked by the offerings the store had.

"There're so many choices," Rachel exclaimed, "I don't know what to choose Mr. Schue."

Will smiled and said to her, "Why don't you let me order for you?"

He approached the woman at the counter and said, "Can I get two cake batter soft serve with chocolate swirls and those cookies please?"

He paid the woman and Rachel and Will stepped out of the way to observe the woman make their ice cream. Rachel watched as the woman handed them their ice cream with a spoon.

"It's ecofriendly," Will informed Rachel, eating a spoonful of his ice cream.

Rachel closed her eyes with anticipation and took her first bite. When she opened them again, Will swore he could see her eyes sparkle in amazement.

"That. Was. So. Delicious!" Rachel squealed as they stepped out of the store.

Will chuckled and replied, "I'm glad you liked it. Do you mind if we took a stroll back to the theater?"

"I would love to," Rachel beamed, taking another spoonful of her ice cream.

The both of them began to walk around in the city slowly, enjoying the scenery and the atmosphere of one of the most breath-taking cities in the world. And of course, they were enjoying their wonderful vegan ice cream.

"How'd you hear about this place? Are you a secret vegan?" Rachel asked, initiating a conversation with Will.

"Well, to tell you the truth," Will replied, "No. I'm not a vegan, Rachel. I went here with my wife Terri about a year ago. She wanted to try to become a vegan. It was one of those phases she was going though. Anyway, we heard about this dessert place. I loved it; Terri didn't. I think that's why she got out of that phase of becoming a vegan. I love eating meat, but vegan ice cream is really delicious and the ice cream at this place was something different. I had a cake batter soft serve back then and that taste never left my memories. I've been meaning to come back here when I had the chance. So, now here I am"

"I agree, Mr. Schue. This place has really good ice cream, suitable for my palate. I have to tell you something though. This is my first time eating any form of ice cream ever"

"No way," Will said incredulously, "What kind of life have you been living?"

"Veganism, remember. My dads got me to start when I was little. They informed me that it was healthy and all the major Broadway stars were doing it. I have never touched a single piece of meat in my life"

"You guys make it sound like a religion," Will laughed.

"It's not. Though I do admit that vegans are pretty superior compared to you meat eaters."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with eating a delicious hamburger fresh off the grill."

"Well, have you seen the way those poor cows are treated? I'd be surprised if you were still eating meat after seeing the cruel treatment those innocent farm animals have been suffering. I wrote a letter of petition to the National Slaughterhouse Society. I even sent a documentary idea to Michael Moore, but he's been having trouble getting back to me."

Will spat out the ice cream he was eating and busted out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Rachel demanded in that ever so Rachel Berry-esque tone.

"Oh. It's nothing. I just find it hilarious. You would do something like that, Rachel."

"Is that a bad thing, Mr. Schue?" Will just shrugged.

As they finished the ice cream, the topics began to change.

"So why'd you come to New York?" Rachel asked.

"Oh, I thought I told you earlier. I wanted to give myself a vacation." Will answered.

"Oh, please Mr. Schue. I've known you for like two years now. If anything, the Will Schuester I know would not just go on a vacation just for the heck of it. He needs reason for doing something. So tell me the truth, Mr. Schue. Why'd you go to New York?"

Will thought for a moment and responded, "Okay. I'll tell you. On the condition that you have to answer me truthfully one question as well."

"That's not so bad, Mr. Schue. Deal"

Will sighed and without looking up from his now empty ice cream bowl, he answered, "Well, I guess it all started after Regionals. I had the tremendous fear that Glee club was over for all of us. I confessed to Emma that I still loved her, even though she was with Carl at the time. I made the mistake of kissing her. It was actually the second time I surprised kissed her. And right then and there, she told me that she couldn't be with me. She wanted to give us some more time to evaluate new things now that she was with Carl. That was that. Even though Glee club wasn't canceled thanks to Sue, my heart still ached after hearing Emma say that. So, I did what I normally do. I ran. I wanted to get away from Lima for a while and what better place to go to than New York. I figured a couple of Broadway shows would knock me out of my funk and get me back into place before school started. I guess I just needed some time alone."

"But you're here with me," Rachel said, "In fact, you invited me to tag along on your little trip. You're not alone, Mr. Schue, like you originally intended."

"Well, I saw how horrified you were with that musical. I needed to get you out of there. I would do that for any of my students."

"Is that really it, Mr. Schue?"

Rachel, you're like my best friend. Besides Emma, Terri, and my parents obviously, you know more about me than anybody else. Frankly it scares me sometimes, but it reminds that I actually have someone who took the time to know about my quirks and who's willing to be my friend. It's kind of sad that my friends are all female."

Rachel laughed and turned her head sideway to look at Will.

"You really consider me your best friend?"

"Of course and friends always help friends in sticky situation such as watching the second act of _Shrek the Musical_."

"I really appreciate it, Mr. Schue. Thanks for the ice cream also"

"Hey, it was no problem. And if it weren't for you, I don't think I would BE having such a great time in New York."

"Yeah, my trip was sorta gloomy. My dads just wanted to go visit museums while I wanted to see some Broadway shows. _Rent _was playing. We could've seen that, but no. The musical we got stuck with was _Shrek_. I almost tore my hair out after hearing those actors sing. I think I could've done better."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you could've. You certainly have the talent. Not to mention, their ego," Will laughed.

They were approaching the theater and Will was about to drop Rachel off when he suddenly remembered he still had one question to ask Rachel. But first he needed to ask Rachel something else. He was nervous at first about asking, but Rachel really broke down the wall that Will felt earlier. He felt like he could be himself when he was with Rachel in New York. There weren't any thoughts of that teacher/student barrier stopping him from enjoying the company of Rachel Berry.

"So, didn't you have a question for me? You said so earlier," Rachel said inside the theater lobby. It did catch him off guard at first that she still remembered it.

"Of course, but I will only ask you that question if you would do me the honor of accompanying me to see _Rent _tonight at 7," Will replied. Rachel immediately bit her lower lip.

(Rachel's mind: _Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!) _

"Are you asking me out, Mr. Schue? I believe that's against the law in the continental United States unless you want to take me on a date to Iceland where there are no such restrictions." Rachel eyed Will curiously as Will laughed at her little joke.

"No, Rachel. Of course not. It's just a friendly get-together that friends often do. Don't you have some girls' night out?"

Rachel frowned and replied, "No." She paused for a moment and looked down. It looked like she was about to cry.

"Anyway," Will started trying to distract Rachel, "Will you please accompany me to see _Rent _tonight? I could sure use the company. Plus, I heard you wanted to go see it. My treat"

Rachel looked up and smiled.

"I would love to, but first, I need to ask my dads."

"Not a problem"

"But the musical's not done for another 10 minutes. You can leave though. I really don't want you waiting on me. I might even sneak inside again just to see how the musical ends"

"You don't know how it ends? Didn't you watch _Shrek_ though, Rachel?"

"Not really. I think I fell asleep when we watched it in 6th grade."

"All right. So how am I going to know if you're allowed to go or not?"

"Come on, Mr. Schue. Get back to the 21st century. We have cell phones now. We'll just exchange our contact numbers."

"Hmm," Will thought.

Suddenly the barrier came back up and Will thought twice about giving his attractive female student his number, but he did say she was one of his best friends. And friends do give each other their phone numbers, so Will agreed and they exchanged telephone numbers. Besides, they were just teacher and student. Friends only.

"Text me if you can go," Will called out as he walked out the door.

"Of course," Rachel shouted, watching Will leave the building.

Tonight was definitely going to be an interesting night, Will thought as he made his way back into his hotel. A few minutes after returning, he received a text from Rachel:

**It's Rachel! MY DADS SAID THEY'LL LET ME GO SEE **_**RENT**_**! I am so excited! Do you mind picking me up though? I don't really have a ride.**

Will quickly texted a message back to Rachel to inform her that he will pick her up at 6 and politely reminded her of the Broadway attire. He also asked if she wanted to get dinner afterwards. She responded back by saying that she had over 7 outfits for every Broadway shows. And dinner sounded fantastic.

As Will laid back onto his bed, this was on his mind.

"This is definitely not a date. Just friends watching a Broadway show and getting some dinner afterwards. At least, I think it isn't. Oh, crap…"

**Thanks for reading. I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please Review/Comment. Any suggestions to the story. Please PM me. Part 2 will be up soon. Do not worry guys. Check out my other stories for the new readers. "Pirates" is a story I am sure you guys will enjoy. I had a lot of fun writing it. "Known Unknowns" is my pain right now. I'm trying to come up some new stuff for it. I did promise it to be a mutli-chap fic, but I'm kinda lost on it right now. I think I'll finish "Don't Ever" first before heading to that again. But please read "Pirates". I'm really having low readers for that. Thanks again. Have a great week! **


	6. The Photo Part II

**Hey another update for this story. I am kinda sad that this coming to a close though. But it will be my first completed story. I am going to work on "Known Unknowns" (thanks to BuffyAnne for her suggestions) and "Pirates". Please check those two stories out. **

**PS: You guys give wonderful reviews. I enjoy them all. Thanks for the read, reviews, and the subscription. Enjoy! **

**The Photo Part II**

"I feel so overdressed," Will thought to himself as he was standing inside the lobby of Rachel's hotel. Overdressed was an understatement. Will usually opted for the sports coat because usually for Broadway shows, Will wanted to wear semi-formal cloth. Well, formality really took a humongous step when Will decide to rent a tuxedo after receiving Rachel's text that she was allowed to come with him to watch _Rent_. Another impulsive choice, however. He didn't really understand why, but Rachel usually goes to town with her outfits. He might as well try to compliment her style since she puts the time and effort into the type of clothes she wears. At least, that's what he reasoned to himself. Bowties is definitely not my type of thing, Will thought as he took a seat in the lobby.

There was constant staring from other people passing through the hotel lobby. At first Will was thinking maybe it's because he was looking extra sharp and they were just admiring the way he dressed. Will didn't know why he had to kid around with himself about the way he looked. He never really imagined himself to be an attractive gentleman, though women would constantly try to flirt with him. He never engaged back because back then he had a wife. No, it wasn't the way he was dressed, Will noticed. Will then realized they were looking at his hair.

"This is the last time I'm going to use gel," Will thought.

Despite what Sue believes, Will Schuester does not load his hair with enormous amounts of hair products. For some reason, Will had been blessed with an ever so disobedient hair. It was naturally curly and he honestly didn't need to use any hairspray or gel in order to keep it that way. Every morning, after taking a shower, his hair would poof up. It was funny looking at first, but after blow drying it, his hair returned back to its normal state. That changed when Will decide to actually try using gel for the first time in a long time. He didn't look too half bad after combing his hair and looking at himself in the mirror. It was strange seeing his hair combed like that, but it wasn't that bad. It could've been worse and Will had hoped no one would notice it. Apparently, everyone in Rachel's hotel noticed his new hairstyle, causing Will to become a little embarrassed.

Will glanced back at his watch. He decided to pick Rachel up early, so they could get to the theater, get good seats, and maybe take the time to talk to one another. Will really enjoyed Rachel's company and he liked having a conversation with her. Rachel was random at times in her conversations, but their conversations were never boring. It always kept Will's mind stimulated by the interesting topics she brings up.

He didn't really understand why people in high school find Rachel to be strange. Well, she gave off the vibe the first time Will met her, but after getting to know her, he changed his mind quickly. Other kids weren't like Will though. Will imagined that it's because they don't really understand Rachel completely. Rachel was a unique woman. And anytime someone is unique, they are often given the role of an outcast within the brutal society that is called high school. Rachel was one of a kind though. It is her uniqueness that made her stand out among the students. And she had the God-given talent of being a phenomenal singer.

People don't see that. They only perceive Rachel to be an arrogant know-it-all who thinks she's better than most people, but Will sees beyond that. Granted, she did have her moments where Will just wanted to join the annoyed mob, but Will understood what Rachel was like. Rachel was a girl who fights against her insecurities by being confident in who she is and that kind of empowerment was impressive in Will's eyes. Maybe it goes overboard sometimes, but at least Rachel Berry was a girl who took control of her life and didn't let anyone or anything push her.

In spite of the constant verbal abuse and the slushies every other day, Rachel Berry found a way to combat that by striving what's ahead and not paying attention to the chaos of the present. That was something that Will commended her for. That was what made her uniqueness. If only other high school girls, let alone other women, were like that, Will thought.

It was five minutes until it was 6, but Will wasn't really in any hurry. They may get horrible seats at the theater, but they still had each other for company and they were going to watch _Rent_, probably one of the greatest musicals of all times. Will understood that Rachel was a girl and women usually take a long time while preparing for anything. His wife Terri used to be the same. Sometimes, he would already be dressed and ready to go, but Terri would take another hour just to get ready.

As Will continued to be alone with his thoughts, the sound of high-heeled shoes clattered slowly down the hotel staircase. It was this noise that caused Will to look up. It was probably Rachel, Will thought. The original plan was to pick Rachel up, compliment her, go to the theater, watch _Rent_, take her to dinner, and take her home. It seemed like a simple plan, but the only thing that was missing was actually all the stuff that will happen in between.

Step 1 was complete. He was already at the hotel. Step 2 was to compliment her, no matter if she dressed terribly or not, which Will doubted that Rachel, in her best outfit, would ever look terrible. Will had to admit. Rachel's normal outfits at school were sometime hilarious to look at, but he actually liked the sequined socks she wears. It was always new every time he sees her. But whenever Rachel wears outfits like the one Will saw earlier, it really takes him by surprise. As soon as Will could see Rachel's eyes and her outfit, he knew that step 2 wasn't going to be easy. Rachel was wearing a sapphire strapless dress and it was breathtakingly gorgeous, plus Rachel had her hair curled instead of being straight or tied up. It literally took Will's breath away that a girl like Rachel could dress so beautifully. She definitely looked mature with that outfit on. He realized his mouth was open and he had to find the strength to close it again. Will cleared his throat, placed his hands in his pocket, and walked up to Rachel.

Will knew he was just supposed to say, "You look really nice tonight" as he approached her, but somehow he couldn't find the words. He was still admiring the way she looked. There still were not any words exchanged yet.

Rachel smiled brightly and eyed Will (and his hair) before saying, "Aren't you going to tell me how pretty I look, Mr. Schue?"

Will was taken by surprise as he stammered, "Um. Well. You seem to be. I mean…" Will could feel his ears becoming hot with embarrassment. He couldn't even tell his student that she looked nice.

"Well?" Rachel asked, her hands on her hip.

Will stabilized himself and nodded his head.

"Rachel," he said, "you look absolutely beautiful tonight." Rachel began to beam.

"Speaking as your Glee teacher and a friend of course," he added.

"Okay, Mr. Schue," Rachel said rather skeptically, grabbing a hold of her purse and a small jacket that she was holding in her arms, "Shall we go?"

"Of course. Do you mind if we walk to the theater?" Will asked.

"Certainly. We can converse along the way," Rachel answered.

"Good," Will mused, "As long as our conversation isn't about the mistreatment of animals."

"Or about your relationship problems," Rachel laughed. Will felt his smile disappear and turned into a frown.

Rachel, realizing what she just said, immediately said, "No, Mr. Schue. I didn't mean it that way."

Will gave her a weak smile and replied, "It's fine, Rachel. I understand. Why don't we just head out now?" She nodded her head as they began to walk towards the theater in an uncomfortable silence.

As they were along the New York streets, the sky began to darken. It cooled down a considerable bit, leaving a breezy summer wind in the air. It was actually pretty decent weather to be wearing those kinds of formal clothes, Will thought. His mind never wandered back to what Rachel's said earlier. He didn't harbor any anger because he knew she spoke the truth. Ever since they left the hotel, Will stole a couple of glances at Rachel. She really did look stunning.

As always, Rachel was the one to break the silence between them.

"I never got the chance to compliment on your wardrobe, Mr. Schue. I never took you for a tuxedo wearing guy. Or a guy who combs his hair," Rachel said casually.

"I don't actually wear tuxedos, Rachel," Will replied, "I just rented this earlier. And my hair…First time, I've used gel."

"Really?" Rachel asked with a surprise tone, "Why?"

Will hesitated for a moment. He didn't actually know exactly why he rented a tuxedo, besides the fact that it was on an impulse.

Will thought, "If I tell her I got this tuxedo for our date. I mean, friendly get-together, she'll probably think of something more. I should lie."

So, Will lied, "Erm, it's actually because I didn't bring any extra attires. Yeah, so I had to rent an outfit for tonight."

Rachel smiled and said with a hint of doubt in her tone, "Uh huh."

Trying to avoid some further investigation, Will changed the topic by asking, "Where's Finn? I thought he would be here with you. Aren't you guys together now?"

By the time that left Will's mouth, he realized he said a little too much. It seemed like he was interrogating her on her relationship. Not that it mattered to him, Will thought. After all, she was his student and his friend and he did care for her well-being. It wasn't meant to be a question that should spark more interests. But Will underestimated Rachel. She was the perfect reader of people's mind, especially Will Schuester's mind.

She replied, "Finn didn't want to come with me. My dads and I offered to pay for his plane ticket to go with us, but I guess he wasn't into musicals like I was. He didn't tell me, but I think he'd rather be home than be with his girlfriend. It's okay though. We're going to Swim Ohio when I get back as it is sincerely scorching in Lima and he also says he has a surprise for me. Hopefully, it is the new music so we can practice for Glee club."

"It seems like you guys are having a great relationship. Finn is a really kind guy, Rachel," Will tried to say casually.

"Of course, he is. I planned out all of our schedules during the summer and the school year of when we'll be spending quality time together. Granted, this New York situation was a minor setback in our relationship, but I'm sure our love for each other will pull us through it."

"Don't you kinda think that following a strict schedule in a relationship is a bad idea though?"

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked, walking slowly now.

Will never thought he would be the one to offer giving relationship advices, but this one was an obvious one.  
"It's not a good idea for a relationship to be based strictly on a schedule. Couples ought to give each other enough space. You remember when my wife took a job as the school nurse? She crowded me every moment while I was here. It put a strain on our marriage and I eventually found out about her fake pregnancy, which led to our divorce. What you're doing Rachel, I'm sorry to say this, just strains a relationship and could easily ruin it."

Rachel thought about it for a moment before responding, "I think you're right, Mr. Schue. I think one of the reasons why Finn left me earlier in the year was because of my constant overcrowding of him."

They continued their walk in silence before Rachel asked, "Can you answer something truthfully, Mr. Schue?"

"What is it, Rachel?"

"I'm not really a good person, am I? I know I give off that vibe of being arrogant and superior. Maybe I am, but I've been thinking lately that maybe it's because of this that I haven't had a boyfriend until recently. I should just blend try to blend in with everyone. I could probably make friends that way. I'm just tired of being alone."

"No," Will said rather strongly, "Rachel, you are a wonderful person. And don't let anyone dictate how you are. Don't ever change. At least not the good parts."

"Like what?" Rachel asked curiously.

"Well, Rachel. You are a very headstrong girl sometimes, I understand that, but you are also talented. And you got one hell of a voice. That stands you out amongst the other kids in high school. You see the best in people and help bring that side out. If it weren't for you, none of the students in Glee club would ever mature the way they are now."

"But I get made fun of all the time. Maybe if I try out to be a cheerleader or just try to live normally instead of being a diva or something, people would start to like me."

"Is being liked something that should be a priority in life?"

"It shouldn't be," Rachel answered, glancing down at her feet, "But it does help."

"Rachel, you just answered it yourself. Why should you care about what others think about you? You don't need to be loved by everybody in the word. That just boosts your ego even more. Besides, the Glee club loves you. You are liked."

"Only some though, Mr. Schue. It took Finn joining Glee club, breaking up with his girlfriend, having me as his girlfriend, and losing me to Jesse St. James to realize he liked me all along. I thought if people got to know who I was, they would like me, but I feel like the only reason they like me in Glee club is because of my voice. I'm more than just my voice, Mr. Schue," Rachel said, her voice broken.

"I know. You are more than just a voice. And you shouldn't let something little like this gets you down. You're Rachel Barbara Berry. You're going to be a huge Broadway star and one day, you're going look back at this and have yourself a good laugh. And if it makes you feel any better, I like you and I am sincerely your number 1 fan."

Rachel's face lit up hearing Will say this and she said, "Thanks again, Mr. Schue. You sure made my time in New York so much better."

"You're welcome. Now let's go watch _Rent_ and have some fun," Will declared, bending his arm so Rachel could slip her arms around his.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That was an amazing production of _Rent_, Mr. Schue," Rachel exclaimed as Will and Rachel exited the theater. Will smirked seeing Rachel begin to hum "Seasons of Love" as she literally pranced around Will.

"I agree with you. It looked you had a marvelous time," Will responded.

"Are you kidding? It certainly blew the lid off of _Shrek_ any day," Rachel said excitedly.

"I can't imagine. I'd much rather watch this than the musical we saw earlier."

"I have to thank you, Mr. Schue. It was my first time watching _Rent _on Broadway and it was amazing!"

Will's jaw dropped as he managed to say, "You're kidding, right?"

"I'm not. I only have their soundtrack and I watch the musical on YouTube. Other than that, I have never seen _Rent _live on Broadway amongst the other musicals I haven't seen yet. Don't worry though. I'm going to be starring in those roles soon enough."

"You sure will. Now, you can sure check that off the long list of things you need to see live before you die."

"Yep, that's at the top of my list," Rachel laughed, "So where are we going for dinner because I am starving?"

"Yep, so am I. Thank goodness for those concession stand pretzels. I thought I was going to die of hunger in there."

"So where are we going?"

Will joked, "Well, I was planning on going to a delightful restaurant called The Meat Factory. I heard good reviews about it."

"You're kidding right?" Rachel asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I am. Relax, Rachel. I know you're a vegan. You've only said that 50 times in one day. I asked the concierge at my hotel earlier where I could find a decent vegan restaurant. He recommended a place called Blossom. It's down the street."

"Excellent. I'd love to try New York style vegan dishes. But I'll only go there on one condition."

"What's that?"

"I pay for the food."

"No, Rachel."

"Well, why not? You paid for the _Rent _tickets. Those don't come cheap, Mr. Schue."

"Because a gentleman always pays," Will stated.

"Like on a date?" Rachel asked, turning her head to look at Will.

Will suddenly paused to let his mind analyzed what Rachel just said.

"No, Rachel. This isn't a date. If it is, it'd be illegal," Will responded laughing.

"Well, you picked me up at the hotel. You complimented me on my outfit. You paid for my ticket. And now you're offering to pay for dinner. The only thing missing to make this a real is offering me your jacket. I don't know, but if someone was looking at this from the outside, they would say this is certainly a date."

"Well, Miss Smarty. I don't really mind what others have to say, so long as you and I both know that this isn't a date. It's just what friends do."

"Sure it is, Mr. Schue," Rachel said with a seductive smile, walking ahead of Will.

"What does she mean?" Will wondered in his head. On the way to the restaurant, Will had to tell himself over and over again that it wasn't a date, but why does Rachel seem to strongly think it is?

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Dinner was very uneventful. The food was delicious, no doubt. Besides talking about the décor of the restaurant and the quality of the food, they spent the time eating in quietness. Despite Rachel's protest and her insinuation that their evening was a date, Will reaffirmed his belief that it was not a date and paid for the food. Rachel still claimed her victory by tipping the waiter on the way out.

As they stepped out of the restaurant, they began to progress towards Rachel's hotel. Will glanced at his watch. It was already nearing midnight and a girl Rachel's age should not be out that late, though Will doubted teenage girls would ever listen even if there was a curfew. No tourists in their right mind would bother with sleeping especially in the Big Apple, no matter the age.

"You know you never asked me your question," Rachel said, interrupting Will's thoughts.

"I'm sorry. I must've been distracted. Say that again," Will replied.

"I said, you never asked me your question," Rachel responded, fiddling with the purse in her hand.

"Oh, yeah," Will suddenly remembered.

Will simply asked, "So why did you come to New York?" It wasn't the question he wanted to ask, but it was so Rachel wouldn't bother him again.

"Seriously?" Rachel said with her eyebrows raised, "You get one free question about my personal life and you spend it on a question you already know the answer to? Mr. Schue, I have to tell you. I am extremely disappointed in you."

"I'm sorry. I just have a lot on my mind."

"About what?"

"It's personal, Rachel. You wouldn't understand. You're too…" He paused at that moment, but Rachel caught on as her eyes flared up.

"Too what, Mr. Schue? Is it because I'm much too young? Or I'm not mature enough? Mr. Schue, one thing I want you to understand is that age isn't even a factor anymore in modern times. And I am probably even more mature than most of the students in the school, even the faculty."

Will knew she speaks the truth. Rachel was mature beyond her age. If Will just met her for the first time, he would've thought he was talking to a college graduate.

"So, what is your question? Your actual question?" Rachel asked again.

Will didn't know why, but he suddenly blurted out his question.

"Why did you have a crush on me?"

"Huh?" Rachel stammered, stopping dead in her tracks.

"I asked, why did you have a crush on me? It was only a couple of months ago."

"That's your personal question?" Rachel asked in disbelief.

"Hey, it's something I can use as blackmail one day when you're a famous Broadway star," Will joked, "So tell me why."

Rachel had hoped Will would never ask her a question like this. Deep down, Rachel still realized that she still had feelings for her Glee teacher. Inappropriate as it may be, Will was someone who could keep up with her mentally and intellectually, something that teenage boys her age could not do, with the exception of Kurt and Jesse. But Kurt's gay and Jesse was a jerk to her.

Rachel bit her lip and hesitated to answer, causing Will to say, "I'm waiting for an answer, Miss Berry."

Rachel took a deep breath and said, "When we sang that song 'Endless Love' for Glee, I guess I noticed a spark in your eyes when you sang. It was a spark I haven't seen before in anyone, especially from a boy. I saw how nervous you were about singing the song with a high school student, but still, that spark remained in your eyes. I guess I found myself attracted to that spark. I'm just attracted to guys with a confident attitude and with a passion for music and the arts. I knew that if I was ever with anyone, it would be with someone who could maintain the spark I saw while singing. That's the only reason why I had a crush on you. And please, Mr. Schue, notice the word 'had'."

"Seems truthful enough," Will said in a disappointed tone. He didn't realize that his voice gave off his disappointment, which Rachel picked up.

"But don't worry, Mr. Schue. It was just a minor, simple student crush. I'm sure all girls go through that phase."

"Didn't seem simple to me though, Rachel," Will said before regretting saying that. He knew he had to follow up with something when he noticed Rachel's blushing face.

"But, you don't, anymore. I mean, do you?" Will asked curiously. Why the hell do I want to know the answer to this, Will thought? But Will knew he had given her an opportunity to get out…well, everything. If she said "no", that would've been the end of it. He wouldn't have to stress over this anymore.

They were standing at the end of the street at a curb, waiting for the walking sign to turn green when Rachel turned to look at Will, inching closer to his body, preparing to give her response.

"I, I, I…" Rachel stammered out before a car passing by drove through a puddle right in front of them and splashed some water that was laying on the side of the road. It drenched Rachel's and Will's outfit.

"Oh. My. God!" the both of them screamed. At first they were caught by surprise, but then their surprise turned into laughter after seeing the other suffering the same thing.

"Oh, God. What a night," Will thought to himself, noticing Rachel's wet clothes. There was a cool breeze in the air and Will didn't want Rachel catching a cold in the summer. So he removed his jacket and walked up to Rachel.

"Here," Will said, handing his jacket to Rachel, "You don't want catch something."

Rachel hesitated to take the jacket, causing Will to walk behind Rachel and wrap his jacket around her. Rachel felt his hands on her shoulder before they slipped away.

Instead of thanking Will, she smiled and said coolly, "And the gentleman offers the lady his jacket."

Will shook his head in resignation.

Ignoring Rachel's statement, he replied, "I really hope that was water."

Rachel laughed at Will's small joke as they both walked back to Rachel's hotel. Their earlier conversation took a place in the backseat. To Will, he was relieved. He didn't really want to hear the answer from Rachel. To Rachel, she was relieved that she didn't have to answer Will.

The walk back dried their clothes a little bit. Once they were in front, Rachel gave a yelp, which caused Will to leap in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Will asked.

"I forgot to check my purse. I have my phone and my camera in there. I hope it's not ruined," Rachel answered. Will stood there in front of the hotel, watching Rachel go through her purse with his humongous jacket on.

"Thank goodness. Phone's all right. And the camera's all good," Rachel said, touching some buttons on the camera to double check.

Just then, an elderly woman was passing by when she noticed Rachel and Will in the front of the hotel with drenched clothes. She saw Rachel with her camera, so she approached the two of them.

"Crazy night, huh?" the elderly woman asked.

"Yeah," Rachel responded while laughing, looking up from her camera, "The craziest!"

"Do you need me to take a photo?" the woman asked bluntly.

"Um…" Will hesitated.

"Sure, if you don't mind," Rachel replied brightly. She took a hold of Will's arms and smiled for the camera.

"Smile," the woman said. Rachel was already smiling, but Will kept his smile to a small grin. The light flashed.

"May I just say you two look like an adorable couple?" the woman said, handing the camera back to Rachel.

"Oh, we're not…" Will began.

"Thank you so much," Rachel interrupted as the woman began walking away, leaving Will with his mouth opened in mid-sentence. Rachel began checking the photo on her camera. She frowned after viewing the picture.

"What's wrong, Rachel?"

"You didn't smile."

"What are you talking about?" Will asked, taking a look of the photo. His face had an awkward smirk, not the smile that Rachel thought was going to be displayed in the photograph.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Will apologized.

"Night, Mr. Schue," Rachel said, sadly.

Rachel began to walk alone back to the hotel, her face scrunched up as if she was about to cry. Will didn't know why, but he did not like to see Rachel this emotional, so he decided there was only one thing to do.

"Hold on, Rachel," Will called out. Rachel turned around to see Will following behind her.

"How about we take one more photo?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Present**

As Will was clutching the photo frame in his hand, his mind thought back to the events of that day. It was certainly the closest he had ever been to a student, but Rachel was much different that that. He didn't understand why he found himself to be having feelings for her when he knew it wasn't right. He was supposed to be the teacher; she the student. Yet, in the deep recesses of his mind, he could not deny his growing feelings for her. He placed the photograph back to her cabinet in the same position he found it in.

Will turned to head towards the door when he noticed Rachel standing in the doorway. They exchanged nervous looks with one another.

"Um, sorry for coming into your room like this. The purple lamp caught my attention," Will said quickly.

Rachel's eyes moved towards the downed photo frame on her cabinet as she told Will, "Dinner's ready."

"That sounds fantastic," Will replied, coughing nervously. He clutched the candles in his hand and slipped by Rachel, who was still standing in the doorway when Will left.

Rachel, on the other hand, walked over to the photo frame that was laid down on the cabinet. She smiled gently looking at the photograph as she lifted it back up to its original position, so that it was standing. It was true, earlier in the morning when she was already contemplating to end her life, she laid the photo down, so she wouldn't change her mind. That didn't matter anymore, Rachel thought, as she took one last look at the photo before leaving.

As she left the room and walked downstairs, her mind went back to the photo of her and Mr. Schue in New York. Will was holding camera and aiming it back at the two of them in front of the hotel. Despite still being a little wet, Will's arms were wrapped Rachel's shoulder, who still had on his coat, with his bright smile shining vividly at the camera. Rachel's face was also smiling, but it wasn't because of Will finally smiling at the camera. Even if he never admitted it that day, in that moment, Rachel realized that Will knew that they were both on a date.

**Hope you guys enjoyed that. Please comment. Any suggestions, please PM me. Have a wonderful week. **


	7. Every Last Word

**Hey guys. Here's the update. **

**Question: Do you think I need to change the rating of the story just in case?**

**Warning: There will be a provocative scene in this installment (so children under 16 look away (though I am doubtful of this)). I have to say that it is my first time writing something like this, so if it sucks, please tell me. It is not pure smut because there have been character developments in this story. I may have to write more just to keep on practicing on writing scenes like these. I wanted it to be sweet, so if you didn't get that feeling, I apologize ahead of time haha. Plus, I cannot hold a candle to these other writers who write better love scenes than mine, but I tried my best for this. **

**Anyway, enjoy! R&R**

**Every Last Word**

Will started to head downstairs after meeting Rachel in her room. He honestly did not want to explain as to why he was looking at their photo more than he needed to. There was a delicious aroma wafting through the air as Will placed the candles and the matches in the dining room table. He was about to walk into the kitchen to see what Rachel had cooked when a hand grabbed him on the shoulder and pulled him back. Will quickly turned around to discover that it was Rachel.

She shook her head and smiled.

"Can't go in the kitchen," Rachel said.

"So where can I go then?" Will asked with a grin.

She rolled her eyes and responded, "Take the candles and set up in the living room. I've already set up something nice in there."

Will then showed a confused look on his face, but he complied with Rachel's request. He picked up the candles and walked into the living room. When he arrived, he couldn't believe his eyes.

The couches were pushed against the wall and in the middle was a purple and black striped picnic blanket with a picnic basket. The only thing missing was trees and birds in the air, Will thought. There were also plates and wine glasses (how appropriate). To Will's surprise, the reason for the wine glasses was because there was a bottle of red wine there as well. He knew Rachel didn't drink (does she?); well, perhaps she brought it for him, but then there were two wine glasses on the picnic blanket. Hopefully, Rachel wasn't going to be drinking tonight, Will thought. He set the candles onto the blanket and lit them up.

"Just in time," Will said to himself as the sky outside turned dark. The candle illuminated the room very brightly. He took a seat on the blanket and found himself gazing around the room again before Rachel stepped out of the kitchen with some bowls and a pot. To Will, he could see that the pot was already steaming, which came as a surprise to Will since the electricity was out.

Rachel gently placed the pot on the blanket and handed Will one of the bowls. Will leaned his head forward to sniff the pot. He wasn't sure what was in it, but it smelled delicious.

But first he had to ask Rachel, "What is this?"

"You will see in a minute, Mr. Schue," Rachel answered with a smile. She opened the picnic basket and pulled out the Tupperware. She opened it and Will saw that it was some sandwiches inside. She placed one gingerly on Will's plate and one on hers. Will placed his hand on the sandwich and felt that it was still hot.

"Wait, how are you able to make this? There's no power," Will asked incredulously.

"You know, not everything is run by electricity. There are such things as battery powered too, you know," Rachel said as she began to remove the cork of the wine bottle. She poured some wine into Will's glass and to hers as well.

"Rachel," Will started hesitantly, "You're not, I mean, going to drink, are you? Aren't you underage?"

"Relax, Mr. Schue," Rachel replied, "I'm going to have a little bit. My dads allow me to drink some wine. I like to drink a glass while eating a nice Panini sandwich. It helps with digestions too. Besides, this is nothing compared to what we drink during Passover at the synagogue."

This took Will by a surprise, but if her fathers allowed her to drink, who is he to say otherwise? He waited for Rachel to take the first bite of her sandwich, though coincidentally, Rachel was waiting for Will to take the first bite. So the result was an awkward moment with the both of them staring at the other. It was soon that they realized this had happened and they began to chuckle nervously before eating their sandwich at the same time.

It was really good, Will had to admit. The sandwich was sheer perfection and they really tasted homemade. Well, Will was hungry after all, and he would've eaten anything whenever he was hungry. He took a sip of wine from his glass. Normally, Will opted for beer, but he usually drank wine when Terri and he ate dinner. It was a pleasant time, though Will had no thoughts whatsoever of Rachel replacing Terri's spot. Still, it was a reminder of how times have come and gone.

"This is really good, Rachel," Will complimented, finishing his first sandwich before reaching for another one, "I guess I don't need that Pepto-Bismol tonight."

Rachel was in the middle of sipping her wine when Will said that. She immediately brought her hand to her mouth in order to contain herself from laughing hysterically while clutching her stomach. Will couldn't help but laugh along with her.

"Honestly, Rachel, I didn't think it was that funny. It was a compliment of your cooking skill," Will said immediately.

She composed herself again before responding, "Thanks, Mr. Schue. I appreciate your comment. Duly noted"

"Hey!" Will called, realizing that Rachel was mocking him.

After wolfing down 3 sandwiches, he asked Rachel, "So what's in the pot?"

"Oh," Rachel answered in surprise as she began to scoop some soup into Will's bowl. Will looked down. To his surprise, it was noodles.

"Wow," Will exclaimed, "I am impressed, Rachel. Noodles are like my favorite thing to eat during the winter, especially when it gets so cold outside." Rachel held her bowl in her hand, waiting for Will. Will took the first sip of the noodles and immediately whispered, "Yum," before taking another sip. This made Rachel feel even more appreciated as the both of them finished their noodles in a warming silence.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

They had finished one bottle of the wine before Rachel gave the suggestion to crack open another one. Will didn't mind Rachel's suggestion and gave her permission to do so. He didn't know why she needed to ask him, but he was 99% sure she was trying to drug him. Or maybe that was the alcohol thinking for him.

Now, they were halfway through the bottle and sitting with their heads leaning against the couch, listening to music on an old record player in Rachel's living room while engaging in a conversation.

"Please, Mr. Schue. I would rather you'd be here than anybody else," Rachel said, cradling the wine glass in her hand.

Will laughed and asked, "Why's that?"

"No one really understands what I'm going through right now. If they took the time to ask me, maybe they would know that I was extremely depressed after Sectionals."

"But we tied. We didn't lose."

"Finn broke up with me," Rachel stated, tears developing in her eyes.

"Oh" was all Will could utter as the music continue to fill the empty void of silence.

"Rachel, you know that there are other boys at the school. Hell, there are plenty of boys in this universe," Will said in a comforting tone.

"No one can keep up with my standard though. One person I know that comes close is gay, one person is a jerk, and the other person is my Glee tea-"

Will knew what she was about to say and Rachel knew that Will knew what she was going to say, but he set it aside.

"Don't you worry, Rachel. One day, you'll find that guy," Will said.

Rachel started to smile, but then frowned immediately.

"I'm sorry you have to be here with me though. If it wasn't for what happened earlier, I'm sure you would've been out having fun by now," Rachel apologized.

"Rachel," Will started, "I would've been bored out of my mind if it wasn't for you. Just don't make this a habit."

Rachel giggled.

"Wow. I've never felt this happy since forever," Will then said.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"I mean, I never been out of the apartment for fun. Only for school and errands. Other than that, I don't hang out at bars. Or with friends, well rather, lack thereof."

"Seems like a sad life"

"Yes, Rachel. It is a very sad life. But when you come to my age, the only thing that should be on your mind isn't friends. It's about having a family. I honestly thought I would be a father by now, taking care of my little girl. It just shows you how much I have accomplished." Will paused and brought his hands to wipe some tears in his eyes.

Rachel never realized how important having a family was to Will. She would've thought that after Terri, Emma would be the one to fill in those shoes, but Emma recently married Carl Howell, the dentist. This made Rachel wondered if Will would ever realize his dream.

Rachel placed her hand on Will's shoulder. The sound of the song "Blue Moon" began to fill the silent room.

"I love this song," Rachel mused.

Will didn't know whether or not he had too much to drink already, but he was aware of Rachel's hand. Yet, he didn't lift his defenses up. Pretty soon, Rachel's hand moved to the top of Will's hand. As Will turned his head to look at Rachel's, Will smiled. He stood up, pulling her up as well.

"Why don't we dance?" Will asked.

Without even a response from Rachel, Will's arms began to wrap around Rachel's back as he pulled her close to him and began to dance to the song. It wasn't like a big dance of sorts, but they just spun around slowly and quietly, admiring their environment. Will gripped his arms around her back and pulled her close to his chest. He felt Rachel's hands on his neck and on his muscular shoulders and arms. There were times where Will felt his hands explore Rachel's soft back. There were also times where Will pulled his head closer to hers just to smell her lovely hair. When the song ended, the both of them stopped and gazed into each other's eyes.

There was just an undeniable tension as their faces moved closer and closer to each other until their lips met. Will allowed his hands to move from her back as it inched closer towards Rachel's hair. Rachel began to press her lips forward furiously, forcing Will to move backwards toward the couch. Will's body laid on the couch with Rachel on top, their lips never breaking from each other. Will's hand tugged at her hair, pushing Rachel even closer to him. It felt like an eternity to the both of them. Rachel began to kiss Will's bottom lip before moving towards his neck. She pulled his undershirt up and kissed the hidden features beneath. Each kiss became torturous to Will. They elicited a groan from Will as he felt her lips moving towards his chest and his abs.

It felt so right, yet in the bottom of Will's heart, he knew that it was wrong.

"Stop it, Rachel," Will said. Rachel didn't stop until Will had to force her head up.

"I c-c-can't, Rachel. You know why," Will muttered sadly.

Rachel sat up and moved away from Will's body. She stood up, her hands on her mouth and her eyes. She couldn't look at Will and before he knew it, Will saw the tears sparkling in her eyes and falling down as she ran to her room. Will heard the door lock and he knew that he was alone in the living room with some burning sensations on his upper body from each of the kisses that Rachel gave him. He couldn't believe that he was the teacher who would do such a thing to his students, yet in his mind, he didn't regret kissing Rachel. Her soft and tender lips made Will's body shudder, but then he shook his head.

"I gotta get out of here. I can't stay here," Will told himself, grabbing his shirt and his jacket. He had his hand on the door and began to twist it open when suddenly he paused. He turned around and took a look at the stairs, thinking about Rachel in her room.

"Do you really want to do this, Will Schuester?" Will asked himself, "More importantly, do you have feelings for her?" If he had said no, then he would've been a liar and he could never live with himself. Will knew Rachel was correct when she said that age shouldn't be a factor when it comes to love. Will reasoned that they both share the same feelings for one another.

"No matter how inappropriate it may be to the public," Will thought, "Damn it, I love her."

Will closed the door, dropped his things on the floor, and began to run upstairs to Rachel's room. When he approached her room, he tried to open it, thinking that maybe she unlocked it. She didn't.

So Will began to knock on the door, but there was no response.

"Rachel?" Will called, "Are you in there?"

Silence.

"Rachel," Will called again, "Open the door!" This time, he began to pound the door furiously.

No response.

"Rachel, open the damn door or I'm going to kick it down." Will knew this part was a lie because he honestly didn't know how to kick a door down.

No response.

Will had no choice. He had feared that the inevitable had happened again. He braced himself and rammed his shoulder into the door, but it wouldn't budge. He did this for another five times. After the fifth attempt, Will began to break down and cry. It was not because his shoulder was in pain, but it was because of Rachel. He didn't know whether or not she did something already and he couldn't even kick the FUCKING door down.

"Oh, God!" Will cried out, his tears falling down rapidly as his back slid against Rachel's door.

Still, there was no response.

Through his tears, Will managed to say, "Rachel, if you can hear me, wherever you are now, I just want to say that I'm sorry. I wasn't a good person. I wasn't able to recognize that you were there for me. Despite me being harsh on you at times, you still managed to forgive me. And you considered me your friend."

His hands began to wipe away the tears in his eyes as Will continued, "You know last summer in New York where you and I spent that night together. I never admitted the night to be a date, but you kept pushing that idea on me. Truth of the matter is I was confused that night. It was something a teacher like me would've never done in a million years, yet you broke that barrier. You broke me. You made me into something new. And now I admit it Rachel, it was a date.

In my relationships, you remained supportive of me. Even though they didn't work out, I know you still hoped for my happiness no matter what. And your confession today made me realize that I should've seen it this whole time. I guess what I'm trying to say is Rachel Berry, I love you."

When Will said that, he began to breathe a little easier. There was still no response in the room, so Will hoped that the worst had happened. He stood himself up and was preparing to walk away when he heard the lock on the door click and it opened.

Rachel Berry appeared in the doorway with a broken smile and tears in her eyes. She managed to ask softly, "Do you really mean that?"

Will walked up to Rachel and grabbed hold of her hands. He nodded and responded, "Every last word," as his hands moved to Rachel's head to bring her closer and their lips found each other together again at last.

Will pushed Rachel into her room. He looked around and saw that she had candles illuminating the room. It was a brief distraction before he turned his attention to Rachel again. There was a nervous feeling in the pit of Rachel's stomach because she knew that she was a…

"Rachel, are you a virgin?" Will asked, bringing his lips up for air.

"Not now," Rachel answered as she pushed Will's lips to meet hers again. There weren't any thoughts, any regrets, or any self-control in that time; only passion and desire remained. They managed to make it onto the top of Rachel's bed as Will gently nudged her to lie down on the bed.

"I'm sorry, Will. It's my first time. I probably won't be able to please…" Rachel said before Will brought his finger to Rachel's mouth to shush her.

"Let me," Will responded as he began to pull his shirt off. Rachel reciprocated his actions by removing her thin shirt off, revealing a black bra.

Will took a second to marvel in Rachel's beauty. She was an incredibly gorgeous woman with an incredibly gorgeous body. Whoever made fun of her body certainly did not know what she was like. He came back down and planted soft kisses on her mouth and moved towards neck. He let his hands run across Rachel's breast as his lips began to move down. Rachel began to give a loud groan from all new feelings she was receiving at the moment. Rachel thought that she and Finn never went to this level of intimacy before, but she was glad that Will was the one to do so. She trusted Will.

Will's free hand unlatched Rachel's bra and she pulled it off. Rachel tried to sit up to see what Will was doing, but his kisses kept sending shockwaves throughout her body.

Rachel sensed that Will was fumbling around with his pants, removing his belt and pants to reveal his thin boxers. She took the opportunity to remove the shorts that she was wearing. When Will came back on top, his groin pushed against her and she definitely felt something hard. It forced Rachel to gasp in surprise. Will smiled as his mouth met Rachel's again, but this time, his tongue was inside her mouth. It was like a scout, searching around and exploring the inside of her mouth.

Rachel allowed her hand to go over Will's body. Her hands managed to slide across his boxers, rubbing against his erect length inside. This caused Will to groan in pleasure as his hands moved from her hair to his boxers to pull it down.

But then there was a pause and he stopped what he was doing, leaving Rachel desiring more.

"Rachel, do you want to…I mean, are you sure you want this? I can't. I can't give you what…" Will started to say in embarrassment.

Damn, she's beautiful, Will thought, seeing Rachel's face and body flushed with redness.

In response, Rachel pulled her underwear off and wrapped her legs around Will's exposed hip, forcing him forward into her lips and a passionate kiss again. This was her answer.

When Will slid into her for the first time, Rachel gave a sharp breath and immediately felt her breath taken away from her. She couldn't breathe for the first few seconds as a mixed amount of pain and pleasure coursed through her veins. She gave a loud moan that sounded like it was painful, causing Will to stop.

"Rachel, are you all right?" Will panted.

It felt like nothing Rachel had ever felt before in her life. It was definitely uncomfortable, but she didn't want Will to stop. She wanted him at the moment.

"N-no," Rachel strained, "I'm all right." There was a hint of tears forming on her eyes from the pain.

"Rachel, I can stop if I'm hurting you. I don't want to. You know I don't want to hurt you," Will said.

"You're not, Will," Rachel answered with a smile, gazing into Will's eyes, "I want this so much. Just go slowly for me, please."

Will returned her smile and he nodded. He gave her another quick kiss before starting again, this time complying with her demands. He was trying to be gentle for Rachel; after all, it was her first time.

It was really uncomfortable at first, but soon, Rachel grew accustomed to the sensation of Will thrusting in and out of her. She began extremely aware of her surroundings (the soft pattering of the rain outside, the flashes of the thunder in the distance, the sound of her clock ticking, etc), yet she never broke from the intense gaze Will was giving her. Her legs were around Will's hips, but she wrapped it tighter as Will began to pick up speed.

Will groaned out her name softly, but each time he said it, it grew in volume and in pleasure. His head buried deep into her hair, taking in the scent that would be buried deep within his mind.

Her arms ran across Will's cold sweaty back, yet it didn't gross her out because she discovered that her skin was breaking out into a cold sweat as well.

In an instant, she didn't know why but there was a strange feeling that was occurring deep inside her. When it exploded, it caused Rachel to grip Will's back even tighter and pull his hips toward her even more. She began to scream Will's name in pleasure as she rode out her first orgasm. It was unlike any sensations Rachel ever had.

Rachel felt Will's breath become shorter, each breath shallower than the one before. She knew that he was close to the end. Rachel suddenly felt the same strange feeling from before and it was coming back strong. She began to grip Will even tighter as she was about to approach the end as well.

"Are you…Are you going to…" Rachel asked.

Will moaned a yes in response, increasing his speed even more.

Rachel screamed Will's name as an intense sensation erupted within her again, causing her to moan in pleasure. Rachel felt Will's earth shattering climax in her as he screamed her name loudly, coincidentally, as the thunder boomed over Lima, Ohio.

Will's arms felt like they were jelly as Will collapsed on top of Rachel's body, the both of them sweating profusely and panting out of breath. The both of them couldn't believe what just happened.

"Did you…Did you…" Rachel managed to speak out before Will lifted his head again.

"Oh my God," Will panted with a concern look in his eyes, "I forgot to…Oh, God!"

Rachel felt her eyes stinging again as both Rachel and Will began to cry. Rachel pulled Will's head towards hers and kissed it.

"It's going to be okay. Don't worry, Will. It's going to be fine," Rachel said reassuringly while her voice was cracking and Will crying into her shoulders. The only feeling remaining between the both of them was not love anymore; it was fear for the repercussions.

**Thanks everyone for reading. The Epilogue will come out after this. I am sad that this story is ending. It was meant to be a one-shot quickie write, but I wanted to make it much more complex than that. Thank you to my faithful readers and commentators. I love you. I hope you guys will continue to check out my other works as well. Anyway have a great day and I will see you guys later. Comment please! **


	8. Epilogue

**Well, first off, I want to address an issue that I found in my review. Liz, I thank you for taking the time to read my story and expressing your opinion on the matter. I guess I should offer you my perspective about this. I believe we used to live in a society where a teacher and student in a relationship were tabooed. I think it's because we're still used to that mentality that it is unethical when someone who is a position of authority has feelings and expresses it to someone who is younger than he or she is. Hopefully my idea of love is not skewed, but I believe that love shouldn't have any factors that affect it, whether age, orientation, race, etc. This is just one perspective that I am doing because if you've noticed, Will is rather lonely a lot and Rachel just had her heart broken. Why is it strange that these two broken people find each other? The reason I write Will/Rachel is because I notice their undeniable chemistry the first episode I saw them in and it's probably better than the fluff I noticed between Rachel and any other character. That is what fan fiction writers do. They are supposed to write about the other perspectives, not always the one Glee focuses one. True, I can do write canon writings of Rachel with Puck, Finn, or even Mike (I contemplated doing that) or Will with April, Holly, or Emma, but I like Rachel/Will. This doesn't mean I'm going to be doing 100% Rachel/Will ship stories, but I will tell you I will do more of them in future. Now, I'm not expressing disdain. I actually appreciate the fact that you voiced your opinion in your review. It helps me evaluate why I am writing this story in the first place. So thank you again. If you're not into this, I also have two stories that you might enjoy, Known Unknowns (adult Rachel and Will) and Pirates (a hodgepodge of our Gleemates). As for the age, I'm pretty sure the legal age of consent is 16 in Ohio. I checked just in case for the Will in my story. Also thanks to Will Rachel FTW and iheartmattmorrison for your kind words. **

**Thank you to everyone has read and review this story. Thanks for the subscription. I have enjoyed writing for you guys. It's been a long journey, but every journey must end somehow. Don't be too disappointed with the epilogue please. I wrote for like a week now lol. It has so much stuff in there that my brain is still comprehending so many areas this story could've gone to. Enjoy!**

**Epilogue**

When the first shade of sunlight entered Rachel's room, Rachel felt its intensity in her eyes, causing her to open them slowly. Her body felt extremely sore and for a split second, Rachel didn't understand why. As her thoughts came back, she suddenly remembered. She glanced over to the other side of the bed, but no one was laying there. Rachel began to doubt herself.

"Did last night really happen?" she questioned herself, "Did I imagine it?"

She lifted her blanket up to find out that she was indeed naked. She moved her hands to feel the other side of the bed. It was still warm and Rachel estimated that it wasn't that long ago that Will left.

She laid back on her bed and began to recount the events of yesterday up until the moment where Will Schuester came into her room for the second time. She replayed their night together, the magical and wonderful moments that had occurred within it. Her cheeks turned red when she realized that she had slept with Will Schuester. And he had confessed to her that he loved her, but then she thought again. Why did he leave her that morning? Was it just a ruse just so he could have his way with her?

"No," she told herself, "You have to stop thinking like that. He confessed his love for you. Stop overanalyzing it. Besides, he's probably at school by now."

School! Suddenly her brain clicked when she realized today was a school day. She turned her head over to glance at her clock for the time.

"Oh, my God!" she screamed, "I'm going to be late" She leapt out of bed and hopped quickly into the shower.

During her quick shower, her mind kept bothering her with questions. Both Will and Rachel knew of the results of what happened last night. If people were to find out about it, Rachel would be humiliated and Will would be fired, or worse, put in jail, but that wasn't the worst of their problems. They did not use any contraceptives last night. That was probably the biggest mistake that she'll ever make in her life, but that wasn't what Rachel realized she should be concerned about at the moment as she got dressed and grabbed her bag to head out the door. Walking by the driveway, she did not see Will's car, so she began to walk to school. She knew she had to talk to Will to reaffirm his declaration again. That was her concern.

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"Hey, Mr. Schue," Puck called out to Will as he was walking quickly into his office, trying to avoid as many students as possible. Too bad Puck caught him in the middle of his sprint.

Will scrunched his face as he turned around to answer back.

"Oh, hey Puck. What is it?" Will asked.

"I was just wondering since you found Rachel and all. Is she all right?" Puck replied.

Will paused for a moment before responding rapidly, "Uh, yeah. S-She's going to be all right. She should be here any moment. Why don't you ask her? Gotta go, Puck."

Will sprinted furiously towards his office, leaving Puck standing behind with his mouth left opened in the middle of a response.

"I was just going to ask the guy why he's wearing the same clothes, but all right," Puck said to himself as he approached a nerd for his daily lunch money.

Will placed his bag onto the floor of his desk as he checked his watch. First period was about to begin. Luckily, it was a free period for him. During this time, he would usually grab his mug and head towards the teacher's lounge for some coffee and the occasional morning chat with Coach Beiste and Emma. Somehow, he could not bring himself to go to the teacher's lounge, in fear that they might ask questions, but he also realized that if he didn't make his daily trip, questions might still be asked. Will decided that he might as well go, grabbing a hold of his mug and walking rather absentmindedly to the teacher's lounge. He couldn't even remember where the teacher's lounge was until he heard a voice call out his name inside a room.

"Good morning, Will," Emma called out, "Where are you going?"

Will had to do a double take when he realized he just passed the teacher's lounge. He laughed nervously as he ambled into the room.

"Hey, hey," Will chuckled before he realized he had forgotten Emma's name. What was wrong with him this morning?

"Emma!" Will shouted when he remembered her name, though it certainly caught the attention of the other teachers and Emma, who took a leap back and almost spilled her coffee cup.

"Are you feeling okay this morning, Will?" Emma asked curiously.

"W-what do you m-mean? I'm doing fantastic," Will answered, waving his arms in the air. He didn't realize when he was waving his arms, Sue was walking through.

"Watch it, buddy!" Sue screamed at Will.

"Oh. I'm sorry, Sue. I guess I'm a little jumpy this morning. I think I need some coffee," Will stammered out, before turning towards the coffee pot.

"Or some Ritalin," Sue muttered under her breath before turning to Emma and Coach Beiste, who had just walked in.

"She-Hulk, Ella," Sue addressed with a nod.

"Hey, you better watch yourself," Coach Beiste roared at Sue, "Call me She-Hulk again and I swear to you that I'm going to take one of those pom-poms your little cheerleaders keep waving around and shove them up your-"

When Coach Beiste and Sue did this for the first time, Emma thought someone was going to be killed, but now, it was more of a daily routine. They were probably friends, even if they never said it.

"Are you sure you're all right, Will?" Emma asked, moving away from Coach Beiste's and Sue's daily fights. The curious thing this morning, however, was Will. He seemed really jumpy when she first saw him.

Will cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee before answering, "What do you mean? I'm doing fine."

Emma pursed her mouth together and said, "Will, you kinda left a mess back there." Will turned around immediately, finding out that he spilled some coffee all over the countertop. He picked up some towel and cleaned it.

"Are you sure you're fine? I mean, you can always come to me for help. I'm the guidance counselor," Emma offered.

"Who impulsively got married in Las Vegas," Will muttered under his breath as he was cleaning.

"What was that?" Emma asked.

Will turned his head to look at Emma and responded, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." Will grabbed his mug and began to head out the door before Emma called on him again.

"Will," she called.

Spinning around, he answered, "Yes?"

"How do I put this? Um, Carl and I are having a Christmas Eve party. I was just wondering if you weren't doing anything, would you like to come? No one should be alone on Christmas."

"Thanks, Emma," Will answered softly, "But I think it's best if we don't spend this much time together. We have too much history together and I think it's best if we give each other a break." Will turned around and began to head towards his office in the choir room, not noticing Emma's sad look.

When he walked into the choir room, to his surprise, he could see the figure of Rachel sitting in his office with her usual attire. Will took a deep breath and walked into his office, closing the door behind him. The door closing startled Rachel as she turned around to see Will coming in and sitting at his desk.

"Shouldn't you be in class, Rachel?" Will asked bluntly.

"No. I skipped first period to see you," Rachel replied, smiling brightly.

"Look, Rachel. What happened last night-"

"It's okay, Will. I'm not going to tell anyone."

"That's not what I'm going to say, Rachel," Will said, standing in front of her.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked, her smile disappearing.

"Last night," Will began, "was a mistake. It never should've happened and it meant nothing."

Rachel's eyes began to sting as she stared into Will's solemn face.

"But you said you loved-" Rachel said with a broken voice.

"What I said was just to get you out of your room," Will interrupted, "And I guess in the heat of the moment, I got caught up with it too. I promise you that it won't happen again. I'm the teacher; you're the student. That's all we will ever be."

More silence between them.

Rachel felt devastated more than anything at the current moment. Her heart was slowly crumbling into tiny little pieces, hearing Will said that.

Though with tears in her eyes and ferocity in her voice, she stood from her chair and said, "You're nothing more than a liar, Will Schuester. How could you say that we did was a mistake and it meant nothing to you? You sure as hell didn't treat me like that last night. You respected my wishes and treated me delicately last night. And it's because of some stupid rules that you're going to forsake on love! Do you really want that to happen, Will? Do you want to leave your chance at our love?"

"Rachel," Will tried to say in a calm manner, but his voice was breaking too, "I'm going to tell you this one last time. You and I, we cannot be. It's just…" Will could not explain himself any further as he slumped into his chair, fingers covering his eyes.

"Please just leave me alone," Will requested.

"But Will…" Rachel pleaded.

"Rachel, please leave. I need some time for myself," Will stated with finality, turning away to avoid looking at her. Rachel wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeves and she nodded, grabbing her bag. She didn't have the strength to go to school, but she knew she had to keep up with her appearances. She didn't want to ruin her school attendance record as she walked into first period with a late pass. The whole day, she found herself unable to focus on the school, but on her feelings for Will. Maybe he was right, she reasoned. She probably needed to apologize to some people, namely Finn Hudson for what she did to him. Maybe getting back together with him again would ease her of her pain she was experiencing at the moment.

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Finn was calmly sitting in the courtyard, trying to enjoy his cheese pizza. Most kids would eat inside the cafeteria, but Finn didn't. He actually preferred the serenity of being outside, even though it was a bit cold. It was an arduous week and the day before didn't help at all.

Finn played the memory of the day before. So much happened last night, things that Finn thought never would've happened. He never could believe that one day could change his life forever. Finn never received the chance to talk to Rachel. He realized he didn't have any classes with her, so the only time he thought he might be able to see her was during Glee rehearsal. He knew he was proven wrong as Rachel Berry, holding a tray of her food, approached him at his table.

"Do you mind if I sit here with you?" Rachel asked gingerly.

"Um," Finn hesitated for a moment when he saw that it was Rachel, "N-not at all, Rachel."

Rachel placed her tray on the table and sat down in front of Finn. She glanced down at her food, then back at Finn, and then back at the food again before picking up her fork. Giving a sheepish smile, Rachel ate the first bite from her salad bowl.

"Salad, huh?" Finn asked while grinning.

"Yeah," Rachel replied, "Vegan, remember?"

"Of course, I remember," Finn laughed nervously. Rachel stared at him, causing him to focus back on his pizza.

Rachel sat there in amazement. She would assume that Finn would be overjoyed to see her, but right now, he's acting as if nothing ever happened to her. It was just awkward between the both of them for some reason.

"Rachel, are you okay?" Finn asked, peering into Rachel's face, which expressed a solemn look.

Rachel did not respond to Finn's question, dropping her fork onto the tray, prompting Finn to pursue a bit more. He chewed the last piece of his pizza and stood up. He walked around over to Rachel's side and sat right next to her.

"Rachel, I want you to know something," Finn said, placing his hand on Rachel's hand, which was now trembling. Finn couldn't see Rachel's face because she looked in the other direction, but he knew that something was going on with her when the first teardrop rolled down her cheeks.

"Rachel," he called, "Look at me."

"I just want everything to be normal again," Rachel sobbed, "Is that too much trouble to ask?"

"No, of course not. You are surrounded by friends. You're safe now. And I promise I won't let anything like this happen to you again," Finn uttered with such conviction in his voice, causing Rachel to sway towards his direction. Her eyes were already red and puffy, her cheeks flushed. Finn couldn't help but smile whenever he saw Rachel being emotional. She makes the funniest face. In fact, this one caused Finn to start bursting into laughter.

"Stop laughing!" Rachel shrilled, her face laughing along even though it still showed traces of her tears.

"Come here," Finn said, grabbing a hold of Rachel and giving her a warm hug. As Rachel's arms were around Finn, she finally felt happy again, but she knew that something was missing. When Finn broke away, Rachel leaned forward and kissed Finn passionately.

Finn reciprocated her kiss, but then after several seconds, he pulled away, his face contorted into a strange look.

"What's going on, Finn?" Rachel asked, confused.

Finn didn't dare look at her as he answered hesitantly, "I'm sorry, Rachel, but we broke up. And I'm sort of seeing someone right now."

"Who?" Rachel asked. It was supposed to be a question, but it sounded more like a demand.

"I-It's not your concern right now Rachel. I can't be your boyfriend, but I can be friend. That was my promise to you. As a friend and only as a friend," Finn replied.

Rachel felt a heavy weight on her chest that prevented Rachel from breathing as Finn told Rachel that, but she nodded her head.

"I understand, Finn," Rachel said in a gentle voice. She lifted her tray and stood up, walking away from Finn and her eyes glistening with tears.

When Finn couldn't see Rachel anymore, he continued sitting there in deep contemplation. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulders did he break out of his thinking. It was Quinn.

"Is she all right?" Quinn asked.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Finn snapped. Quinn wrapped her around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head.

"I will. Rachel needs a friend now and I promise myself that I will be nice to her. I haven't forgotten that."

"Don't you think you need to talk to Sam first about us?" Finn asked, turning his head around to look at Quinn.

"I do. I'll see him in sixth period. I will tell him then."

Finn smiled and squeezed Quinn's hands tightly.

He said, "I hope we're not taking things too fast. I mean, I just got out of a relationship with Rachel and I know how Rachel can be. Can we keep our relationship on the down low for now? I don't want Rachel to be, you know, heartbroken again. That girl is too emotional."

Quinn bent forward and gave Finn a quick kiss before saying, "It'll be our secret."

There was still something on Quinn's mind as she asked Finn, "Do you still have feelings for her?"

She waited before she realized that Finn was struggling to answer her question and Finn knew that he couldn't lie to her.

"Never mind, Finn. I'll see you later," Quinn said, walking away, leaving Finn in the cold. Finn never noticed the tears developing in Quinn's eyes and her quivering lips caused by the intense sadness she was feeling at the moment.

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It was three weeks later. During those three weeks, Rachel tried contacting Will as much as possible, but he was avoiding her like the plague. He cancelled Glee club rehearsals and informed them that they will start back up again after the winter break. It was just a ruse to avoid seeing Rachel. That was the last time Rachel saw Will. She tried calling his phone, but he would never pick up. She showed up at his apartment, but he refused to answer his door. Rachel had no idea on how to get a hold of Will. There was only one thing left to do. She planned on showing up at his front steps on her birthday. She didn't know why, but it just sounded poetic and romantic to her to do so. She would not move an inch until he opened the door for her.

As Rachel was walking through the snowy Lima weather toward Will's apartment, she was wondering if what she was about to do a good plan. After all, what if he never responded to her and left her outside in the cold? She didn't know whether or not Will was good at reading people's bluffs, but she was willing to bet her life that there's no way Will would not respond to her actions.

Clutching her jacket, she walked up the steps of his door and rang the front door bell.

"Now, all there is do is to wait," Rachel told herself, but surprisingly, the front door opened immediately followed by laughter from a woman. There was a blonde woman standing in the doorway, laughing as she was leaving Will's home. Rachel recognized who it was from her laughter and her persona in general. It was the substitute teacher Holly Holliday.

As Holly turned her head from inside the house and into the doorway, she saw Rachel and she asked, sounding surprised, "Rachel? What are you doing here?"

"Oh," Rachel replied in a surprised tone as well, "Ms. Holliday. I'm just here looking for Mr. Schue. Is he inside?"

"Yeah, he's just getting ready. We're about to go catch a movie. Why don't you come in?"

Rachel stepped briskly into Will's warm apartment, but did not proceed any further into his home. But Holly's gesturing hand pushed her into his living room and she sat down on Will's sofa. Rachel noticed that Holly seemed really acquainted with the place as Holly went into the kitchen to get Rachel a glass of water. When Holly handed Rachel the drink, Holly sat down right beside Rachel.

"So how have you been doing, Rachel? Glee's been going great?" Holly asked to incite a conversation.

"Yeah. It's been excellent," Rachel responded, but she wasn't too sure about the answer herself. Glee used to be in her mind (minus singing live on Broadway) every day and night. Ever since Sectionals, Rachel had not been herself, but she knew this wasn't the truth either. The truth of the matter was since Will left her house three weeks ago.

"That's fantastic," Holly giggled, "I really miss you guys. Principal Figgins is actually having me substitute the health class next year. It's going to be hard teaching those kids sex ed because I doubt they need any help from me. If you know what I mean…" Holly nudged at Rachel's arm, causing Rachel to flash an awkward smile and turning away from Holly to take a sip of her water.

"I really don't understand why I have to wear a tie to the movies," a voice called out. Rachel sat straight when she recognized it to be Will's as he walked out of the bedroom. He stopped dead in his track when he saw Rachel sitting in his living room.

"Rachel?" Will asked nervously, "What are you doing here?"

Rachel was going to answer, but Holly replied, "She said she needed to see you."

"Oh," Will said tentatively.

Both Rachel and Will looked at one another, but no one said anything, causing Holly to glance between the both of them. Her eyes, however, looked at Will rather suspiciously, which prompted Will to speak up.

"Hey, Holly. Do you mind waiting in the car? I'll meet you in a minute. Rachel probably wants to talk about the Regional set list and it's probably a secret," Will said. It was a lie and it probably wasn't the best lie in the world, but Holly nodded as she stood up.

"I understand. I thought I was a part of the club, but I guess I'm not," Holly said with a trace of sadness in her voice.

"It's not that," Rachel blurted, "You're a part of Glee club too, Ms. Holiday. It's…it's just we wanted it to be a surprise for you. I just wanted to go over some things with Will. I mean, Mr. Schue here."

Holly instantly beamed as she turned to Will, "Really? A surprise for me?"

Will smiled nervously and replied, "Yep. The kids really wanted to do this just for you."

"Aw, thanks you guys. I can't wait to see it," Holly gushed as she danced out of Will's apartment.

As soon as Holly closed the door to the apartment, Will turned to Rachel and asked, "Rachel, what are you doing here?"

"Are you dating Ms. Holliday?" Rachel asked instead of replying.

Will sighed and responded, "What if I am? I'm sure that my love life should no longer be your business, Rachel."

"Will, why do you keep doing that?"

"What am I doing?" Will demanded.

"You don't respond to my calls. You won't answer the door. Most of all, you're avoiding the problem!"

"Rachel, you're the one with the problem here. I already told you. I don't have feelings for you."

"Will, when are you going to stop lying to yourself? I can see it in your eyes. I know when you have feelings for someone and right now, I know you still have feelings for me," Rachel said, close to tears now.

Will knew that she was right, but he chose to ignore her statement. Instead he grabbed his jacket and wrapped it around himself, preparing to leave Rachel behind.

"I'm sorry, Rachel, but this can't continue anymore. You have to understand that I'm not the only guy in this world. There are others as well."

"So, what then?" Rachel said, tears streaming from her eyes, "Do I add you to the list of men in history who used a woman for their body and then leaves her in the dust? Can I generalize you now, Will?"

"Rachel…" Will sighed.

"No, I get it. I thought you were different. I really did," Rachel said, shaking her in disappointment.

"I am different. It's just…You're young. I'm old. I know you said that love shouldn't have a factor in that, but in this world, in this society, we abide by rules. That's why we can't be together. You've only looked at the present, but you haven't seen the future yet, Rachel. Maybe tomorrow or a year from now or even ten years down the road, you're going to regret not being with someone your age. That's the truth and I've already accepted it. So should you."

"I don't care, Will. I lo-"

But Will held up his hand. He didn't want to hear anymore. He walked to his front door, and opened it in dismissal. He was planning on leaving already, but his hand was still on the door handle, waiting for Rachel to leave. Rachel stood up from the couch and headed towards the door without speaking a word. She began to walk out, but she stopped when she reached Will. She turned her head to face Will. Will suddenly felt uneasy.

"I have to tell you something, Will," Rachel said, softly while biting her lower lips.

"What is it?" Will asked apprehensively. But then he noticed Rachel hesitating. What did she want to tell him?

"I…" she started, but she could not finish the statement. Instead, she leaned forward to kiss Will's cheeks, her body brushing off Will's as she walked away from Will.

Will stood at his front door, dazed from the kiss Rachel just gave him. Even though it was just his cheek, he could feel the heat radiating from that area. It distracted him from his curiosity of what Rachel was trying to tell him earlier. He locked the door to his apartment and proceeded to walk towards his car with Holly already inside. Her window was opened and she was chatting with Rachel. Will could make out a few words, but he understood that Holly was inviting Rachel to go to the movies with them. Will immediately tensed up, thinking that Rachel might accept, but she politely declined, saying she had to go somewhere. As Will approached the driver's side, Rachel glanced up, taking one last look at Will.

Will whispered, "I didn't forget. Happy birthday," to Rachel, causing Rachel to smile sadly back at Will and walk away.

"What took you guys so long?" Holly asked as soon as Will got into the driver's seat. He placed his key into the ignition and started the car.

"It was nothing," Will said coolly, "You know Rachel. She has so many ideas. Sometimes enough to drive a person crazy."

Holly laughed and placed her hand on top of Will's hand as he backed out his car and headed towards the theatre. As he was driving, he began to remember. What did Rachel want to tell him? It was a relief that she never answered, but then again, he feared the repercussion if people found out about Rachel and him. Will hoped Rachel didn't tell anyone, his concern of what Rachel said earlier taking the back seat.

As the new snow began to fall down and cover the old, Will wrapped his hand around Holly's hand. Will dreamed for the upcoming year to be another year of something new. And he hoped to share it with his significant other. At least he wouldn't be lonely this Christmas. Hopefully by next year, he would've been married and start a family by then.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Why didn't you tell him?" Rachel berated herself as she wandered along the street.

He actually remembered my birthday, Rachel thought. It may have been happy news to her that someone, besides her daddies, remembered her birthday, but it was still significantly small to the news Will told her that he and she will never be together. There was only one thing left to do and that was Plan B. She never hoped to do this because Finn had already gone through this, but Will rejected her. Finn was the only one who remained in her life now. Even though he had his eyes on someone else, she knew that Finn still had feelings for her. Still, she regretted what she was about to do, but she knew she had no other choice.

She stood right outside Finn's front door. She hesitated for a moment. Was this what she wanted to? The question tormented her as her hand slipped back and forth on the doorbell.

"It's decided," she told herself as she pushed her mitten-covered finger on the doorbell.

It was about three seconds before the door opened and Rachel could see the delicately, slim figure of Kurt Hummel. Rachel suddenly remembered that Kurt and Finn lived together now at Burt's house.

"Rachel? Rachel!" he squealed, pulling her into the house and giving her a long hug. Rachel felt as if Kurt was squeezing the life out of her.

"Not so hard," Rachel panted, trying to squeeze out of Kurt's embrace.

Kurt pulled away from Rachel and began to say rapidly, "Oh my goodness, girl. I heard what you were planning to do. Thank Cheesus you're not going through this. This universe needs more both of our divaness to survive. So, how have we been doing?" Kurt looked really ecstatic to see Rachel.

"Um, thanks Kurt. I've been doing great. What are you doing back home so early? I thought Dalton didn't get out yet?" Rachel replied.

"I transferred again. I'm back at McKinley now. I heard about your little stunt and your words about me. Thank you for that by the way. I know that in my absence, this school has gone for the worse with you at the helm. Yes, I'm here to claim my number one diva title back. I hoped you enjoyed it, but now that I'm back, I'm not letting it go again!" Kurt joked.

Rachel laughed along with him and said, "Yeah, when I'm dead, you can get that title back."

"Oh, it's on, bitch," Kurt laughed, poking Rachel's stomach, causing her to giggle excessively.

Rachel never realized how compatible she was with Kurt until recently. It was true in the past Rachel and Kurt had their disputes of who was the queen bee in Glee club, but when troubles started arising for Kurt in the form of bullying, Rachel stood up to his defense and ever since, they bonded together as close friends. She'd often have a Facebook conversation and Skyping with him online and their friendship grew ever since. She also knew about his innocent crush on the Warblers' lead singer, Blaine Anderson.

"What about Blaine?" Rachel asked innocently.

"Well, he'll live. We're still friends, you know?" Kurt replied, his face blushing.

"Sure, you guys are," Rachel laughed.

"Oh my goodness. I forgot to ask. What are you doing here, Rachel? We don't need to practice for the diva off until after the break," Kurt said.

"I'm just here to see Finn. Is he home?" Rachel answered.

"Yeah, he's upstairs in his room. My dad finally got a room for him since he complained about living with me. He doesn't understand the true taste of Moroccan Winter. It's how I decorated our room in the first place. Finn's just being boorish. I've been back like one day and he hasn't even talked to me, except during dinner when he asked me to pass the salt. I don't think he's been out of his room ever since school ended according to what mom told me."

"Thanks, Kurt," Rachel said as she walked up the stairs to Finn's room.

"If you need me, I'll be in the basement, preparing some special beauty ointments," Kurt called out.

"Cause Lord knows you need some," Kurt muttered under his breath as he headed downstairs, chuckling.

Rachel stood outside of Finn's door, but she was afraid to step inside. Somehow she mustered up all the courage she had and took a deep breath before she twisted the doorknob. She realized she should've knocked before going in because Finn was on his bed where she couldn't exactly see where his hands were exactly, but they were underneath his blanket. When Finn noticed the door opening, he threw his magazine immediately under the bed.

Rachel raised her eyebrows when she noticed the tell-tale signs. Bottle of lotion. A box of Kleenexes. Hands underneath the blanket. The magazine. And the most important sign of all, the horrified look upon Finn's face when he saw that it was Rachel. Rachel blushed as she closed the door behind her.

"Rachel," Finn said nervously, sitting up from his bed, "What are you doing here?"

Rachel locked the door to the room (something he should've done earlier), causing Finn to gulp in nervousness. He still had no idea what she was doing.

Rachel began to remove all the articles of her clothing until she was left in her undergarments. Finn widened his eyes in surprise as she was doing so, but he couldn't move and he couldn't say anything. It was until Rachel began to approach his bed did Finn began to shout, "What are you doing, Rachel?"

Rachel lifted his blanket and climbed in. She noticed that he was naked minus a thin boxer underneath. She slid over to Finn until her hands were touching Finn's chest. She leaned her head forward and her lips crashed into Finn's. She pushed forward, kissing Finn, trying to imitate the same intensity that she felt when she was kissing Will. Finn did not resist as she did not expect him to. They both had an underlying sexual tension that was just waiting to be exposed.

"I-I can't. Rachel, you know we..." Finn started.

"But I want to," Rachel whispered seductively in his ears, moving her hands to his boxers.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Finn asked, causing Rachel to momentarily cease. It was like an echo of what Will asked.

"I want your first time to be magical," Finn continued.

If only he knew, Rachel thought, but she already decided that her first time with Will didn't count. She wanted it to be with Finn instead. She didn't want to hurt Finn by lying, but she knew she had no choice. She nodded her head and continued kissing Finn, wondering as Finn moved himself on top of her if this was the right thing for her to do.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It was not the same, Rachel decided. Finn, exhausted from the passionate lovemaking, fell asleep afterwards. Rachel cradled her head on his chest and moved her finger along his skin, trying to get that same emotional feeling she had after her first time when Will cradled his head on her shoulders and she burying her face into his hair. Everything just felt right at that moment.

The last thing Rachel wanted to do was to hurt Finn, but why does the guilt keep coming back? She moved away from Finn's sleeping body and tried to look for her clothes. The sky outside had darkened, causing Rachel to fumble around in the darkness for it. When she was dressed, she leaned over to Finn's forehead and kissed it.

"I'm sorry, Finn. I had to do it," Rachel whispered with a hint of remorse behind, hoping that Finn didn't hear what she just said. A loud snore confirmed her suspicion. She tiptoed out of Finn's room, unlocking the door and opening it to step out. She took one last look at Finn and was starting to close his door when she heard a voice behind her say, "Took you long enough."

Startled, Rachel spun around and found Kurt sitting in front of Finn's room with his laptop. Rachel found herself unable to speak from the shock. Kurt glanced up and noticed her disheveled clothes and the naked body of Finn, covered only by his blanket, on the bed. Kurt always knew how to add properly.

"So how was it?" Kurt asked as if everything was normal.

"Kurt, why are you-" Rachel started to speak.

"I was wondering where you were," Kurt interrupted, "so I went upstairs to investigate and I came upon a cacophony of sounds. Judging by Finn's excessive groaning, which sounds like a trombone and a cat mating, and his numerous references to the Big Sky Daddy and of course the mutual response from you (Kurt raised his eyebrows at Rachel), I concluded that the great Rachel Berry has finally lost her V-card. Am I right or am I right?" Kurt proceeded to laugh triumphantly.

Rachel frowned immediately, which came as a surprise to Kurt, causing him to stop his laughing. He closed his laptop and began to observe her more closely. Why would Rachel Berry act so strangely after making love with Finn, the man she was supposed to love, Kurt thought? He would've expect Rachel to be all giddy by now.

"Is something wrong?" Kurt asked immediately.

"There is something wrong," Rachel replied hesitantly.

"Yes, Rachel. I can help you with your wardrobe, if you would like," Kurt joked, but he knew that there was something wrong with Rachel as she brought her hands to her face to hide the tears in her eyes.

"When did gay guys suddenly become counselors to women?" Kurt sighed as he stood up. He reached out his hand and pulled Rachel up.

"Come. Why don't we talk in my room? You can let it out there," Kurt said, walking downstairs. Rachel followed closely behind as they entered Kurt's beautifully colorful room. He sat down her down on his bed while he sat across from in a red bar stool he installed for his room.

"So tell me, what's going on? Why are you crying? Was Finn really that bad?" Kurt asked, his hands and legs crossed.

Rachel didn't know if she could say it and even if she could, there was no way she can phrase it so it wouldn't sound so serious.

"Kurt," Rachel said, containing her nerves and her tears for a moment, "I'm pregnant."

Kurt felt his eyes and his mouth opened wide at Rachel's declaration, but then he started to laugh.

"Rachel, you've only had sex with Finn less than an hour ago. How can you say you're pregnant already?" Kurt asked. He wasn't really expecting her to say that.

"Finn…Finn's not the father, Kurt," Rachel replied, her eyes gazing across Kurt's ceilings.

Kurt had to do a double take as his mind processed this piece of news Rachel just informed him. He felt his eyes and his mouth widening again.

"What?" was all Kurt could say. He never expected Rachel to lose her virginity to anybody else except Finn, but apparently there was another man in her life. And now she's pregnant. This was like Babygate catastrophe all over again.

"Who's the father, Rachel?" Kurt asked curiously as Rachel continued to cry.

"I-I-I can't tell you," Rachel strained out from her tears.

"You have to tell me. If you don't want me to tell Finn about what you're doing, you have to tell me."

"How did you know about my plan?"

"See, Rachel. I actually have a brain and I use it to my advantage unlike the rest of the school. Is it someone at McKinley? Do I know that person?"

Rachel nodded her head at both of Kurt's question.

"Tell me who it is. I promise I will not tell anyone. I will take it to the grave with me."

A word left Rachel's mouth.

Will.

Kurt pondered for a moment and exclaimed in confusion, "Will Stone? That guy is such a klutz. Why did you sleep with him?"

"Not that Will," Rachel said sadly.

"Then which one?"

"Use your head, Kurt. How many Wills do we know of? That I know of? Who I would actually sleep with?" Rachel said in frustration.

Kurt thought again, but then he began to shake his head.

"No!" he said in horror.

"Yes," Rachel said, nodding her head.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Rachel Barbra Berry, tell me you did not sleep with our Glee teacher!" Kurt cried hysterically.

Rachel did not respond to his question, which confirmed his fear.

"Why, Rachel? Why did you do it? And when?" Kurt asked, starting to become emotional himself.

"I fell for him, Kurt. It was three weeks ago. He was a gentleman. When I was feeling suicidal, he was there for me. And it wasn't his fault. I pushed him. I always push. And now, this is the result," Rachel replied, her face downcast as tears became puddles of stream on her cheeks.

Kurt paused for a moment and allowed all of what Rachel said process in his mind. He then asked, "Does Mr. Schue know?"

"No, he doesn't. And frankly I don't want him to know. He rejected me afterwards," Rachel spat out hatefully.

"Is that why you slept with Finn? You want Finn to believe that he is the father of your child when it's really Mr. Schue?"

"I've already decided that Finn was going to be one and only. Will had his chance. Now all I want to do is just have this baby, so Finn and I can take care of it. That was my plan."

"Don't you think this will hurt Finn even more? Did you remember what happened when Quinn was pregnant? Finn hated being lied to," Kurt said.

"I know, but I have no other choice. I don't want to hurt Finn's feeling, but I need someone to take care of this child with me. I can't do it alone. I want Finn to do it," Rachel said, her hands on her stomach.

"I don't know, Rachel. You're hurting both guys either way. I don't condone teacher/student relationship, but what's done is done. The damage is set, but speaking as a friend, I honestly don't think you should go through with this plan of yours."

"Don't you understand, Kurt? I have no choice. I have no way out," Rachel sobbed.

Kurt stood up from his stool and walked over to Rachel. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Ok, ok. Shush. Don't cry, Rachel," Kurt comforted, "Just make sure they will never find out about it. And I already told you, I'm taking this to grave with me. If you believe this is right, I trust you. You and Finn will make it through this. As for Mr. Schue, I honestly don't know what to say about the guy. It might make me look at him much more differently in the future."

"I just want everything to be all right again," Rachel cried.

"It will be, I promise. One day."

Kurt and Rachel were still in the embrace before Kurt asked Rachel, "Do you still love him?"

Rachel pulled back and looked at Kurt. She could've asked who, but Rachel knew he was referring to Will. Was it love? Or was it just a crush? Though Rachel lied to Kurt, saying "no", she hoped that she will never have to answer that question anymore, but she knew she was wrong. There was a storm brewing in her future that she couldn't forsee and Rachel didn't know if things would ever be the same again.

**I hope that ending wasn't too disappointing for you guys. I know Will/Rachel never got together, but don't give up hope (wink wink). **

**Thank you to all my readers and reviewers. My first completed work! I don't know about a sequel (I'll see if enough people want one), but we will see in the near future. I need to work on my other works as well, but as of now, "Don't Ever" is finished. I have enjoyed writing for you guys. Please check out my other works. And comment! I love you guys!**


	9. IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE**

**I HAVE GREAT NEWS!**

** The sequel to "Don't Ever" is up. It is called "Let Me Go." If you have subscribed to "Don't Ever" and want to continue with the story, please subscribe to "Let Me Go" because that is where I am going to continue with the story. Let's just say that the sequel will be great. I hope to get a lot more ideas from you guys. Please continue to read! Thank you for your time! **

**Patrick **


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